According to this Time Magazine article, George W. Bush has one of Saddam Hussein's pistols mounted and displayed in the Oval Office study as a "souvenir."
A snowglobe from Mt. Rushmore is a souvenir. Decorative spoons from all 50 states are souvenirs. Little resin replicas of national monuments are souvenirs. Keychains, mugs, refrigerator magnets, and postcards are souvenirs. Your enemy's sidearm, displayed in your office, is a trophy.
Yes, I'm nitpicking semantics, but if we are ever to consider the fighting of a war to be the serious business that it is, we need to make a clear distinction between vacation mementos and things we take off our enemies on the battlefield. It's Memorial Day weekend; can't we at least pretend for a couple day to recognize the difference between war and a whitewater rafting trip?
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