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

To: mph who wrote (15979)	4/4/2006 3:16:25 PM
From: epicure	Respond to of 541922

Except that terrorism doesn't cover what is happening in Iraq. There is a lot of terrorism, but the insurgents are also mounting real military actions. Perhaps, in an effort to satisfy everyone, the media could say "Insurgents utilizing terrorist tactics did such and such..."- and just use the term "insurgents" for actions which were military. I have actually seen insurgent used in sentences with terrorism, so it's clear the media does understand that there are multiple threads to the issue. I'm sure simple sloppiness accounts for most of the loss of clarity on this issue- because I don't know anyone, no matter how liberal, who thinks these "insurgents/terrorists" are beneficial figures.

To: mph who wrote (15979)	4/4/2006 3:20:14 PM
From: Dale Baker	Respond to of 541922

Your first point on terrorism vs. insurgency - without reaching back to grad school lectures that I couldn't recall verbatim anyway, terrorism is generally practiced by forces with little or no hope of occupying territory or defeating government forces in a stand up battle. They stage violent episodes to gain attention and embarrass the government they oppose. They also hope to draw the government into repressive countermeasures that will further alienate the populace whom they presumably want to win over. An insurgency is a more organized, ongoing effort to weaken the government's military control over areas by showing they can stage more and more attacks and get away with it. Eventually, they look for the central government to break down or lose on the battlefield or both, like Cuba, Vietnam and Nicaragua. The Eritrean fight against Ethiopia for several decades is another one. Don't ask me about the difference between an insurgency and a revolution or we will be here all night. As for the power of words and propaganda, I agree, but I don't see what practical import it has at this stage. Bush calls them terrorists seven days a week and public support for the war has dropped like a rock. Do you think that all media outlets parroting his line would make a difference? Not stacked up next to the news coming out of Iraq about actual body counts, however they are characterized.