Euphemisms in English Everyday Discourse Eufemismy V anglickém jazykovém prostředí

Collateral damage
 in Afghanistan is unavoidable.”
(Zenko, 2009) 
On the other hand a retreat of the army is called a 
tactical withdrawal
, 
which makes the whole unpleasant situation appear attractive. As the expression 
contains a word 
tactical
, it gives a notion that the retreating action was planned, 
however, the opposite is true. In this way, a 
tactical withdrawal 
is nothing else but 
an escape from not winning the fight.
“AU forces say they are back in control after taking a 
tactical withdrawal
.”
(BBC, 2015) 
The example below shows the euphemism that turns something negative 
into positive. Since the bombing is understood as bad and definitely not a 
welcomed fact by the audience, the euphemistic variant 
protective reaction
is 
preferred by the speaker. The expression changes the point of view on who was 
the initiator of the bombing because 
the protective reaction
is just a response of 
defence caused by the enemies’ attack.
“But no details were given and the spokesman declined to clarify the position 
about 
protective reaction
 raids. In the past the US has resumed bombing of North 
Vietnamese targets in response to threats against or attacks on its reconnaissance 
flights.”
(Jenkins, 1973) 

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Carefully constructed and designed euphemisms were formed to name 
legal killing. Again, a use of foreign words is apparent and the reasons for it are 
the same – elegance, sophisticated colouring and neutralizing of the negative 
connotation and finiteness. Since the first two examples are abundant in use in 
media, 
silence someone
is rather a metaphorical designation of the act. 
Execution 
and the 
capital punishment
differ in its implementation. Whereas 
execution
means 
to cut your head off, the 
capital punishment
is rather a general term for the death 
penalty and it does not say how it will be done.
“Saudi Arabia’s
execution
of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr risks 
worsening sectarian tensions, the US has warned, joining a chorus of critics from 
the west and the Middle East who have condemned the killing.”
(McVeigh, 2016)
“The sharp escalation in the use of