Will someone please dig a hole and bury "boots on the ground"?

This term has far outlived its novelty, if it ever had any. It's time to put it to rest in the semantical cemetery.

This military jargon, experts say, was first used by a British officer in counter-insurgency efforts against the Malayan National Liberation Army during the period from 1948 to 1960. It popped up again with the large U.S. force increase in Vietnam from 1965 to 1968.

It has been resurrected and come into current use in the debate on whether the fast-growing Islamic terrorist movement can be stopped with ongoing air strikes or if resistance efforts will succeed only through historically traditional combat. This comes at a time when the American public is weary of war and peace-prone policymakers prefer to shun the real world advice of experienced military strategists.

Thus the buzz-phrase, "boots on the ground." Politicians and pundits can't get enough of it. It is uttered with grinding repetition in public statements and on-air commentaries. Frequently a sound bite will contain two mentions of the words.

Headline writers love it. Scanning last Sunday's newspapers from my area, I saw it printed over and over. At least one paper had two headlines containing the phrase.

It has even extended to other topics pertaining to world conditions. A doctor discussing the Ebola crisis on a TV show referred to the deployment of U.S. military personnel to Africa to fight the outbreak of the fearsome disease and said, "we need to put more boots on the ground." Admittedly, "scrubs on the ground" wouldn't have the same impact.

Any day now, I expect to learn about a Nashville newbie trying to peddle a song titled, "I'd Like to Put My Boots on Your Ground, Honey."

But what's wrong with just saying "ground troops"? Or, recalling my days of military service in an infantry unit, why not "footsoldiers"? Bill Mauldin, in describing his popular cartoon characters of World War II, Willie and Joe, used the terms "dogfoot" and "dogface."

Sad to say, the "boots on the ground" epidemic will be hard to control. Pols will stubbornly echo it in congressional hearings, town hall meetings and interviews with journalists -- all too many of whom are guilty of lazy writing, plain and simple. There's far too much of that already and it can't be corrected overnight.