Insurgents?
“Insurgents” is a poor blanket term for the terrorists who are attacking the coalition forces and Iraqi military/civilian targets. A large number of these terrorists are foreign fighters. They’re the types of assholes who say “hey, democracy is brewing in Iraq, let’s go kill people!” and cross the border to cause mayhem. The word “insurgent” comes from the Latin insurgere meaning “to rise up.” In order to “rise up” and fight the Iraqi government and coalition, they have to be Iraqi citizens. Otherwise, they aren’t rising up, they are spilling over from neighboring countries like Iran and Syria.
Here’s an idea: no matter where they come from, be they insurgents or foreign fighters, they are all terrorists. They are brainwashed religious zealots who wish to to destroy everything that doesn’t help advance worldwide Islamic domination, and do so not wearing a uniform or fighting as part of a defined army, but carry out cowardly guerrilla style attacks, using civilians as cover, or sometimes targeting them specifically. Why can’t news stories just refer to them as terrorists?
