big boy rules
n.pl.— «Current and former Triple Canopy employees said they policed themselves in Iraq under an informal system they frequently referred to as “big boy rules.” “We never knew if we fell under military law, American law, Iraqi law, or whatever,” Sheppard said. “We were always told, from the very beginning, if for some reason something happened and the Iraqis were trying to prosecute us, they would put you in the back of a car and sneak you out of the country in the middle of the night.”» —“A chaotic day on Baghdad’s airport road” by Steve Fainaru MSNBC Apr. 15, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Loretta in Shreveport, Louisiana, wants to know what lexical and dialectal clues linguists look for when guessing where someone is from. She also wonders: Do people with long careers in the military or who grew up in a military family have a...
A hundred years ago, suffragists lobbied to win women the right to vote. Linguistically speaking, though, suffrage isn’t about “suffering.” It’s from a Latin word that involves voting. Plus: military cadences often include...
“Big Boy Rules” is a phrase often applied by war supporters when knocking back the arguments of the Cindy Sheehans of this world. They correctly note her son volunteered, and even re-upped for a second tour. Thus, “Big Boy Rules” apply and she should not politicize her son’s death.
Unfortunately, these same war supporters don’t like it when you apply the same analysis to them, regarding the “Support The Troops” issue. Further, they don’t understand that war IS politics and the lives of all the soldiers were politicized by Bush when they were sent to war.
Instead, the war supporters invoke “The Little Jesus Syndrome” (martyr) when it comes to supporting “their” troops; and limit the “Big Boy Rules” to those troops or their loved ones who don’t pound the drums of war.
In the end, Big Boy Rules DO apply. They apply to all troops, on both sides of that issue. The laws of physics and ballistics dictate that conclusion.
Anyone who knows the troops also knows they aren’t a bunch of Boy Scouts or angels; they are Big Boys and when a young man gets all patriotic and gung ho, without even knowing what patriotism really is, “you takes your chances.” In other words, “Big Boy Rules” is just another way of saying, “Life’s a Bitch.”