the question from caitlin about bombing isn't the only dual purpose scenario. israel has prisoners while hamas has hostages we're told but what is the difference is a question to ask yourself but when you say you're gonna think to yourself about it, the question becomes who else would you think to. perhaps a better way to 'think' about it would be you aught to just go think about it; 

The word “bombing” is interesting, because it becomes a different word depending on what part of the world it’s being used in reference to.

If I look at you with a shocked and serious expression and say “There’s been a bombing,” you’ll immediately assume I mean there was an explosion in a city near you, or perhaps in some other western city like New York or London. If you see me reading the paper and casually stating “Wow there were dozens of bombings last night,” you’ll probably assume I mean military explosives being dropped on people in the middle east.

If I was in the UK in the nineties and said “There’s been a bombing,” everyone would immediately assume I meant an IRA attack on British soil and respond with grief. If I made the exact same noises with my mouth in the UK today, people would assume I’m probably talking about Gaza, Lebanon or Yemen, and they’d shrug.

It’s two very different words. They’re spelled and pronounced the same. They have basically the same meaning. But they’re different words. At least in the parts of the world where English is the dominant language, they have a completely different weight, and they land completely differently. One is shocking and horrifying, while the other is normal and expected. One will be the leading story in your news media for days, while the other might not even get mentioned.........more.........