Insurgents and other Misnomers

Merriam-Webster online dictionary definition of insurgent is:

A person who revolts against civil authority, or an established government; especially : a rebel not recognized as belligerent.


It is time to stop calling the Iraqi people fighting our illegal occupation of their country insurgents and terrorists. These people have had their home turned into a war zone by the Bush administration. Their water is untreated sewage. They have no power. They used to have clean water and power but not anymore. It is estimated that anywhere between 10,000 to 30,000 Iraqi citizens, the people we are supposedly liberating, have died since our invasion, Operation Iraqi Freedom. We've liberated them alright: from breathing, loving, even existing. We've liberated them from their husbands, wives, parents, children and friends. We've liberated them from clean water, electricity and safety from looting. We have liberated them from their jobs so that neocons can run their country into the ground like they have ruined ours. It is nice to know that the unemployed Iraqi are making good use of their time off. By shooting at our soldiers, those brave men and women who put their lives on the line for our safety. We have liberated them from the comfort of their homes to put them into prisons where they are raped and tortured. We promise free elections that have yet come to pass all the while installing a prime minister chosen by our government not the people of Iraq. I bet they go to sleep every night thinking how lucky they are that America came to save them.

Any American who allows themselves to believe that this war was about terrorism is truly deluding themselves.

We Americans are very lucky. With the exceptions of Pearl Harbor and 9/11 war never comes to our shores. The ugliness of war is never in our backyard. We never fear mortar attacks or bombs from the air on a consistent basis. Our children go to school without the fear of being bombed. It is a luxury that the Iraqi don't posess. This illogical and unnecessary war is the the biggest recruitment tool for Al-Qaeda. And thanks to our president every American may soon know what it is like to live in the fear of a war zone that we have inflicted on the Iraqis. Instead of a few Arabs fighting against we have an untold numbers of young men and women willing to blow themselves up for the chance to blow us up.

The most poignant moment of Fahrenheit 9/11 for me was the child with its arm blown apart to where you could see the bones. This is what we've done to the people we came to save. So how dare this administration call the people fighting against us insurgents or worst terrorists. These people have a greater right to defend their country than our founding fathers had fighting the British. But they were called revolutionists and freedom fighters when all they were fighting against was taxation. The Iraqis are fighting for their country. If the situation was reversed would Americans fighting an unwanted invasion force be called terrorist by the invaders?

I believe most Americans know how many soldiers have died since the invasion of Iraq. Over 1,000. I believe some know how many have been wounded. Over 6,000. But how many care about the lives of the Iraqis that have been destroyed through the actions of this President. If it is one less than all that is too few.