Roger L. Simon has a good take on the early handover of power, and the media's insistence on describing murderous thugs as "insurgents":
I think the use of the term "insurgents" by the media inaccurate and propagandistic in its essence. As far as I know... and correct me if I'm wrong... there has not been one single of these people being anything but fascists, either of the Baathist or Islamist variety. Calling them "insurgents" then cloaks them in the romantic veneer of "freedom fighters." We shall see whether the media continues with this obfuscation after the handover. (If there were neo-Nazis attacking the governments of Europe, would they call them "insurgents"? I think not.)
Reminds me of the 1970's and '80's, when right-wing thugs were invariably described as "death squads" by the press, while left-wing or Islamic thugs were always "militants" or "rebels" or (in Iran) "students."
Your timer's wrong.
Ha ha.
[/nelson]
I really liked how some of the news outlets referred to them as 'resistsance fighters' but that paled out after awhile.
Still haven't seen them referred to as partisans. Maybe that term would be lost on too many people.
Words are powerful things, and the only real power the media has is the manipulation of the story. In many cases, I doubt they're even aware of their bias, just that they view the two sides through very different preconceptions.
Sad. The public is already tuning them out - history will be less kind.
My American Heritage dictionary specifies that "Insurgents" are NON-belligerent rebels. It's interestingly dervied from the same (French) root as "Insurrectionist". In both words, the notion is that the population is "rising up".
The word for outsiders who violently oppose a government might seem better to be "agitator".
"insurgent" is a legal term of art that is correctly used in this case. Refer to the ICRC Commentary on the Geneva Conventions, particularly common article 3 and the 2nd additional protocol (available on ICRC website: www.icrc.org).
'Reminds me of the 1970's and '80's, when right-wing thugs were invariably described as "death squads" by the press, while left-wing or Islamic thugs were always "militants" or "rebels" or (in Iran) "students."'
Or "freedom fighters" in, say, Latin America.
Aha! I'd forgotten that hoary old phrase. "Death squads" is indeed a good name for those genocidal Islamoids. Jihadi death squads should I feel emphatic.
