perfumed prince n.— «These Defense Department do-gooders and their Pentagon Perfumed Princes are asking our military personnel to go to war and to kill for their country, but they must do it in a nice way. If they show their warrior spirit in the...
perfumed prince n. a man who is seen as bureaucratic or careerist; a man who is said to be effete, feminine, ineffectual, vacillating, or cowardly; (hence) a member of the U.S. military leadership (at the Pentagon); top brass. (source: Double...
purple
adj.— «The Pentagon nickname for the new breed is “purple-suiter,” indicating an officer wears no particular uniform’s bias.» —“Defense News Policy Passes On Unmourned” Los Angeles Times July 16, 1967. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
lawfare n.— «The Pentagon didn’t quite call it “lawfare,” but there it was, amid the bureaucratese of this year’s National Defense Strategy, a candid reference to the ill-intentioned use of international law and the courts to harm American...
Salvador option n.— «The Pentagon’s latest approach is being called “the Salvador option”—and the fact that it is being discussed at all is a measure of just how worried Donald Rumsfeld really is.…The Pentagon is intensively debating an option that...
cross-decking n.— «Neither did, a Navy officer said, adding that five years ago these ships were “cross-decking” vital equipment, or trading it back and forth, because there weren’t sufficient supplies for both.» —“U.S. Raid on Libya, Called...