April 8 (UPI) -- Two big caveats are an element of this column.
First, this column is purposely written before the Tuesday 8 p.m. EDT deadline issued by President Donald Trump for Iran, in essence, to surrender or face the prospect that "a whole civilization will die tonight."
Second, for some reason, Trump constantly claims he has "decimated" Iran's military and will do the same to its infrastructure. But does he understand the meaning of the word "decimate"? Clearly not.
Historically, decimate meant to reduce by one‑tenth. The term comes from Latin decimatus and referred to Rome's punishment for mutiny, in which one in ten soldiers, chosen by lot, was executed by his comrades.
In modern usage, the word has drifted to mean "to destroy a large part of," but its original sense underscores how imprecisely it is often used today.
