But, again, Ken White seems to be having trouble seeing it in retrospect. Is that not weird? The tweet is phrased to suggest that the Marines are using unusual terminology. They aren't.

You'll find Popehat is a heavily sarcastic poster.

Read it in the sense of "I told my toddler they can't have ice cream three times a day and apparently that makes me a meanie".

"Apparently..." would have been the perfect way to describe my reaction. I didn't realize that "cover me" meant "lay down suppressing fire" to Marines. I guess it makes sense, but that's not the meaning I would have expected. So I would probably have been just as confused as the cops in the story. I wouldn't be surprised if most cops would have been similarly confused.

So yeah in conclusion, I don't really understand the point you're trying to make.