Insurgent.................. Terrorist
Posted on 06/30/2004 8:50:48 PM PDT by quidnunc
As a student of Latin American politics, the word "insurgency" brings to mind myriad images and groups, from the iconic Ché Guevara and his beret to numerous Marxist guerrilla groups that operated in the region during the Cold War. Setting aside the wrong-headedness of their ideology for a moment, and acknowledging that in many cases extreme and unjustifiable violence was committed in the name of those ideas, I can't help but note the difference between those "insurgents" and what we are seeing operating in Iraq.
The difference is quite stark: even the most violent of Marxist guerrillas in Latin America were at least ostensibly fighting for utopian dreams of social justice. They fought against the oligarchy, they fought for the peasant and the urban laborer and their goals were to create a society in which all could live in peace and equality. At least on paper they sought victory to improve the lives of their fellow citizens.
Now, I will wholly grant that these were dreams of the most fanciful type. However, one could at least see a romantic struggle (as many on Left in United States did see) in these fights. And there were even cases where one could at least understand why the militants in question took up arms against regimes that were far from perfect, and in many cases openly tyrannical.
So while it is ultimately true that the fight to establish socialist utopia was both misguided and likely to result in new tyrannies (e.g., the Castro regime), there was at least a positive goal in the minds of those who fought. They might have killed to achieve their goals, but the killing itself was never the goal.
Contrast that to the black-hooded thugs who decapitated Nicolas Berg and Kim Sun-Il, or to the faceless villains who explode car bombs on the crowded streets of Baghdad with no concern for the death caused to civilians. At least the guerrilla wars of the past mostly (although by no means exclusively) took their fights directly to the state and the military, not to families shopping at the local market.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at techcentralstation.com ...
"The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not `insurgents' or `terrorists' or `The Enemy.' They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow — and they will win."
--Michael Moore
Hope that helps.
"The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not `insurgents' or `terrorists' or `The Enemy.' They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow — and they will win."
--Michael Moore
Bring it on fat boy.....
The terrorists in Iraq are desperate...its over for them, they know it and honestly have no shot at winning....
Welcome to FR!
thank you
Damned good question (one I've been asking myself lately), and from what I've scanned, damned good article too - BTTT for later reading.
same difference...
Two pictures are worth ten thousand words. Nevertheless:
Merriam-Webster online
Main Entry: 1in·sur·gent
Pronunciation: -j&nt
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin insurgent-, insurgens, present participle of insurgere to rise up, from in- + surgere to rise -- more at SURGE
1 : a person who revolts against civil authority or an established government; especially : a rebel not recognized as a belligerent
2 : one who acts contrary to the policies and decisions of one's own political party
Main Entry: ter·ror·ism
Pronunciation: 'ter-&r-"i-z&m
Function: noun
: the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion
I found this especially interesting, in the M-W definition for "insurgent":
"... especially : a rebel not recognized as a belligerent"
Hey, media types: Square peg, round hole.
An insurgent is a terrorist with cabfare.
I carry a digital pager while I'm at work and it sends me news headlines. I can't tell you how many times I open it up to catch up on the news and want to throw it against the wall every time it reads, "Insurgents killed planting a roadside bomb," or something similar.
SOOOOO DAMN MADDENING!
kill them all....
you can ask the civilians of Baghdad, they feel terror when the bombs go off, so that makes them terrorists....
the people of Baghdad would feel liberated if the insurgents were on their side. but the good people of Baghdad understand which said is which...
Yes, the dictionary definition is correct.
The media should be withdrawn from Iraq.
They don't know the difference between good and evil.
And another thing...
The media keeps calling them, "IRAQI insurgents." If memory serves, the only cowards doing these crimes that are from Iraq are the ones Saddam released from prison right before the bombing started in March. The rest flooded across the borders from other countries like Iran, and Syria.
And the press never says a single word about this.
Some idiots in the press want us to put Saddam back in power and leave the region all togther too...
Gotta consider the source...
It seems to me the fundamental difference is the type of targets that the person attacks.
If you attack military, economic, and political targets of the new Iraqi regimes (or the US) you are a guerilla, militant, etc.
If you attack civilians you are a terrorist.
So, 9/11 - terrorism, Nick Berg - terrorism, assassinating Iraqi leaders - guerilla warfare, etc.
The thing is though, if you blur the line between the two, you are a terrorist. And that is true of what we see in Iraq.
Even if they stuck to guerilla warfare though, ala the VC, that still wouldn't change the immorality of their "resistance".
Actually, I have a *strong* suspicion that many of the terrorists we are fighting are Palistinians, brought through Syria into Iraq.
Not many groups can boast of members willing to perform suicide attacks. Even for 9/11, for example, not all of the hijackers knew they were on a suicide mission.
But one particular group in the Arab world has shown itself more then willing to strap on a bomb for Allah...and that would be the Palis...
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