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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: carranza2 who wrote (15960)	4/4/2006 2:45:07 PM
From: epicure	Respond to of 541753

I don't have a problem with Guerilla. I would think it has more sympathetic connotations than insurgent, though- or at least the same kind, if one thought insurgent was sympathetic. Wouldn't you?

To: carranza2 who wrote (15960)	4/4/2006 2:57:13 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541753

One of Mexico City's main streets is named "Insurgentes." Yes, I remember it. Sometimes insurgents are freedom fighters. Sometimes they are terrorists. Either way, they're still insurgents. I always thought "guerrillas" had a nicely neutral yet appropriately descriptive ring to it. I like that one, too. I tend to think of guerrillas as small bands who swoop down from mountains, but that's probably just my perception. I would think that an reasonable substitute for "insurgents" in this case. Do you think it would pass muster with the hot-button crowd?

To: carranza2 who wrote (15960)	4/4/2006 3:55:39 PM
From: thames_sider	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 541753

I did try using the term 'guerrillas' for a while. It seemed more apt while the targets and attacks were mainly military in nature. Actually, my main problem with 'insurgents' is not on PC terms or otherwise, but on grounds of accuracy; more than one large faction - the Shi'a militia - seems to be acting with the Interior Ministry and similar power-brokers at least knowing of if not supporting its actions. So it's hard to define a semi-official state body as insurgent against the state... Terrorists is most appropriate for the al-Qaeda cadres, acting as forces of chaos; I think these are still behind much of the suicide bombing, but I think these are actually quite small compared to the other armed groups. Of course, the targeting of liberals and intellectuals was a classic Taleban technique but this doesn't mean it's now restricted to them, unfortunately.