Tom Knapp on the Rape of Fallujah. Read it.
Tom also makes a point that needs reinforcing here:
* “insurgent, n. A person who rises in revolt against civil authority or an established government; one who openly and actively resists the execution of laws; a rebel.”
There are terrorists in Iraq, to be sure. There is also a resistance in Iraq, and I am certain that the two groups have a great degree of overlap; I try my best to distinguish between the two, including in RRND’s headlines and content. There is not, however, an “insurgency” in Iraq, because there is no established government or civil authority for “insurgents” to rebel against. Quislings of an occupying military force do not constitute an established government or a civil authority.
Exactly so. The only sensible word for those who are resisting the occupation of Iraq is the “resistance.” To call the Iraqi Resistance “insurgents” is to participate in the Orwellian propaganda of the Bush administration.