Groundhog Day
Phillip Carter, who has served in Iraq with the 101st Airborne, explains that “Groundhog Day” (the movie, not the holiday) has become a useful part of our military’s vocabulary:
Groundhog Day is now an important part of the soldiers’ lexicon — use it in a sentence in Iraq, and everyone will instantly know what you mean. I would even say that it ranks up there with “FUBAR” or “BOHICA” as immortal parts of the American soldier’s vernacular. I’ve heard soldiers from the rank of private through colonel use the term. (For more on the modern soldier’s patois, see this LA Times listing of soldier slang by Austin Bay, which includes Groundhog Day as an entry.) That’s because “Groundhog Day” does more than describe the situation — it also comments on it. When a soldier gripes that today is another “Groundhog Day,” he’s also making a statement about his perception of events. It may be that he perceives a kind of stasis in the mission, or the lack of change/progress. This soldier may also be making a statement about futility — that we’re going through the same motions, day after day, only to make no difference. Or the soldier may just be griping, a time-honored tradition in the American military. I’ve even heard it used positively, i.e. “We’re going to slog through each day, just like in Groundhog Day, and eventually we’re going to make a difference.” It’s just a great all-purpose military term, one of many to emerge from this war.
Maybe it’s a hopeful metaphor, maybe it’s not. In the words of Dustin Hoffman’s character from Stranger Than Fiction, “The thing to determine conclusively is whether you are in a comedy or a tragedy.”
If you’re keeping score at home, Bill Murray was in a comedy.