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Rumsfeld: Don't Call Them 'Insurgents'
AP (via Yahoo) ^ | 11/29/05

Posted on 11/29/2005 1:23:43 PM PST by Mr. Mojo

More than 2 1/2 years into the Iraq war, Donald H. Rumsfeld has decided the enemy are not insurgents.

"This is a group of people who don't merit the word `insurgency,' I think," Rumsfeld said Tuesday at a Pentagon news conference. He said the thought had come to him suddenly over the Thanksgiving weekend.

"It was an epiphany."

Rumsfeld's comments drew chuckles but had a serious side.

"I think that you can have a legitimate insurgency in a country that has popular support and has a cohesiveness and has a legitimate gripe," he said. "These people don't have a legitimate gripe." Still, he acknowledged that his point may not be supported by the standard definition of `insurgent.' He promised to look it up.

Webster's New World College Dictionary defines the term "insurgent" as "rising up against established authority."

Even Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who stood beside Rumsfeld at the news conference, found it impossible to describe the fighting in Iraq without twice using the term `insurgent.'

After the word slipped out the first time, Pace looked sheepishly at Rumsfeld and quipped apologetically, "I have to use the word `insurgent' because I can't think of a better word right now."

Without missing a beat, Rumsfeld replied with a wide grin: "Enemies of the legitimate Iraqi government. How's that?"


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: dod; insurgents; iraq; oif; rumsfeld; terrorists
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To: vimto

What I call em in private would get me banned from the site.


21 posted on 11/29/2005 1:33:28 PM PST by RetiredArmy (I have no faith in any politician or political party any more. They all lie for their agendas.)
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To: Mr. Mojo

What a lame article. "Webster's New World College Dictionary defines 'insurgent' as..." Who writes this? A high school student preparing to give a speech at graduation?


22 posted on 11/29/2005 1:33:54 PM PST by Cyclopean Squid (Born to sing the Blues)
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To: Mr. Mojo
Well, you can't call them "bastards" in public, now, can you, Don? Let alone what they really are.
23 posted on 11/29/2005 1:34:39 PM PST by RichInOC (RUMS: HOW ARE YOU GENTLEMEN!! ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US.)
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Comment #24 Removed by Moderator

To: MNJohnnie
Applaud! Applaud!
25 posted on 11/29/2005 1:36:59 PM PST by BARLF
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To: 4rcane

Yes, the media changed the terminology. They are called the terrorists, cowards, and thugs they are by most of us.


26 posted on 11/29/2005 1:38:30 PM PST by LucyJo ("I have overcome the world." "Abide in Me." (John 16:33; 15:4)
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To: Mr. Mojo

How about mass serial killers?


27 posted on 11/29/2005 1:39:17 PM PST by goresalooza (Nurses Rock!)
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To: Mr. Mojo
"Insurgents" is their P.C.* name.

*- Pig Copulators.

28 posted on 11/29/2005 1:39:34 PM PST by theDentist (The Dems have put all their eggs in one basket-case: Howard "Belltower" Dean.)
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To: Mr. Mojo

Without missing a beat, Rumsfeld replied with a wide grin: "Enemies of the legitimate Iraqi government. How's that?"



LOL! Right on! These "insurgents" are nothing more than Islamic murderers who want to control Iraq and are using these attacks to try to do so. They are trying to drive the US out so they can then take over Iraq.


29 posted on 11/29/2005 1:39:35 PM PST by CodeToad
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To: Mr. Mojo

"It was an epiphany."

More like someone has been listening to Michael Savage.

Score one more for the man no one listens to!


30 posted on 11/29/2005 1:41:22 PM PST by Prost1 (I get my news at Free Republic!)
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To: Mr. Mojo
More than 2 1/2 years into the Iraq war, Donald H. Rumsfeld has decided the enemy are not insurgents.

So this dripping sarcasm is now part of the news too?

31 posted on 11/29/2005 1:43:17 PM PST by Rummyfan
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To: Mr. Mojo

How about "Heroes of the Left"?


32 posted on 11/29/2005 1:44:58 PM PST by oneofmany (Tolerance is the virtue of a man with no convictions - G.K. Chesterton(The Apostle of Common Sense)
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To: Mr. Mojo

barbarians works for me.


33 posted on 11/29/2005 1:45:52 PM PST by camle (keep your mind open and somebody will fill it full of something for you.)
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To: samtheman

How about dead men walking?


34 posted on 11/29/2005 1:47:18 PM PST by Spiff ("They start yelling, 'Murderer!' 'Traitor!' They call me by name." - Gael Murphy, Code Pink leader)
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To: b4its2late

How about homicidal maniacal swine?

Primitive subhumanoid barbarian swine?

Homicidal swine?

Porcine swine?

(I like the swine imagery.)


35 posted on 11/29/2005 1:48:11 PM PST by ZULU (Fear the government which fears your guns. God, guts, and guns made America great.)
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To: camle

How about "wedding bombers"? Mr. Zarqawi seems pretty sensitive to that one these days!


36 posted on 11/29/2005 1:49:35 PM PST by Dems_R_Losers (The Kerry/Lehane/Wilson/Grunwald/Cooper plot to destroy Karl Rove has failed!)
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To: Mr. Mojo

Call them DOGS it's the lowest term you can call one of their murdering kind Dog is a term they dont take lightly and start coating our ammo with swine blood !


37 posted on 11/29/2005 1:52:41 PM PST by ATOMIC_PUNK (secus acutulus exspiro ab Acheron bipes actio absol ab Acheron supplico)
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To: Mr. Mojo

This is not a confusing issue. Insurgents fight unelected dictatorial regimes. Terrorists fight democratically elected human rights based governments.

Violence is not necessary in democracies as peaceful avenues exist to make change....to change attitudes....to win over public opinion. Heck, with enough support and persuasive enough arguments, the Iraqi's can vote the US military out of town.

In Democracies, legitimate power is earned at the ballot box, period. If they can't convince people to vote for them, then their concerns are not shared by enough people. Shooting at people who don't agree with you is simply sick.


38 posted on 11/29/2005 1:54:08 PM PST by Firefox1
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To: ZULU

Anything but insurgents. I prefer terrorists, but what Rummy says will do.


39 posted on 11/29/2005 1:54:09 PM PST by b4its2late (If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?)
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To: Rummyfan

More than 2 1/2 years into the Iraq war, the MSM has decided the enemy is still the Bush administration.


40 posted on 11/29/2005 1:58:37 PM PST by anniegetyourgun
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