There Are No Insurgents in Iraq

Take a quick trip to Dictionary.com sometime soon and look up these two words: insurgent and resistance. For the lazy, I will quote the relevant text in those web pages:

• Insurgent: (2.) One who rises "in revolt against established authority, especially a government."
• Resistance: (3.) "An underground organization engaged in a struggle for national liberation in a country under military or totalitarian occupation."

The vast majority of journalists, government officials, and bloggers use the term insergent to label the perpetrators of suicide bombings, the folks that attack military bases, and sometimes people who just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I am not sure exactly when this term was coined, but I am willing to bet that it occurred during one of the military briefings (the ones in the Spielbergesque studio) shortly after Mr. Bush made his premature declaration of victory on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. Furthermore, It is a term which was carefully chosen to imply either:

1. The United States Army was the "established authority" in Iraq, or
2. The United States Army was the "government" in Iraq.

Neither of these assumptions is or has ever been true.

You see, when Saddam was captured, the country of Iraq essentially had no government. At that point, it became an occupied country. Therefore, the people who showed their defiance to the occupying military forces were, in fact, the Resistance. No government, no insurgency.

We are always hearing of Iraqi insurgents, yet there is little to support the justification of using this word. The message is repeated over and over again, ad nauseum, until becomes embedded in our mythology. Eventually, a dreadful association is made: the military holds the authority.

However, in Iraq, the indigenous population, by and large, has been showing resistance to the actions of the military forces that have decimated the country -- those misled soldiers who have effectively condemned the country to living standards equal to those in the Third-World nations. The brave men and women who have been putting their lives on the line can only be called occupiers. They are not a policing force, nor are they a governing body. They are a killing machine.

And, as efficient deliverers of death, the United States armed forces are second to none. We should not confuse their purpose with political doublespeak. They attacked, they killed, and they now occupy. The Iraqis who fight back are the Resistance.