Insurgency / insurgent

The people the US is fighting against in Iraq and Afghanistan are called many things, most often insurgents or terrorists. Rebel is also apt, but nobody uses it.

In a speech on the Iraq war at the U.S. Naval Academy on November 30, 2005, Bush unveiled rejectionists and saddamists. The only earlier uses of saddamists I could find referred to members of the deposed Iraqi regime, i.e. those pictured on the notorious playing cards, and not to loyalists or sympathizers. Saddamists no doubt resonates with Bush's political base because it sounds like sodomists.



An insurgency is an armed rebellion against an established, recognized government. As an occupying force that illegally invaded a sovereign nation, the U.S. can hardly be regarded as the legitimate government.

In another time on these shores, people took up arms against the established, recognized government, We call them patriots.

During the 1980s, the U.S. supported and armed rebels fighting the Sandinista Nicaraguan government, many of whom were CIA-trained death squad members engaged in sabotage, assassination, bombings, and other acts considered terrorism. But we called them contras.

It all depends on what side you're on.