A War of Words

You know, if the Defense Department devoted enough attention to the Iraq war effort as they do to semantics, we might not be in such a mess over there.

Don't call it an 'insurgency': Rumsfeld
Tue Nov 29, 2005 04:29 PM ET
By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld argued on Tuesday that the guerrillas fighting U.S.-led foreign forces and the American-backed government in Iraq do not deserve to be called an "insurgency."

Asked at a Pentagon news conference why he did not think the word insurgency applied to enemy forces in Iraq, Rumsfeld said he had "an epiphany."

"I've thought about it. And, over the weekend, I thought to myself, you know, that gives them a greater legitimacy than they seem to merit," Rumsfeld said.

Rumsfeld instead referred to the guerrillas in Iraq as "the terrorists" and "the enemies of the government." U.S. military statements also have referred to insurgents as "anti-Iraqi forces."

(Full story)

Come to think of it, let's start calling all those casualties "soldiers in transition" instead.