What is the difference between an insurgent and a terrorist?

[Willy Lee]

Just curious. Seems our gov throws these terms around pretty loosely.

[mrgorth]

1. Your point of view.

[RUDUing2]

8. technically (M

an insurgent is a rebel..someone who revolts against or joins a rebellion against an established government, authority or political party. Basically a freedom fighter like George Washington, et al...

a terrorist is someone who uses terrorism (The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons. http://www.dictionary.com ) against a government, people, etc to try and enforce their will upon them...

[bunkerbuster1]

2. Brown-skinned + Fox News = terrorist

[Doohickie]

3. An insurgent is one of the ones we kill

Terrorists are the ones who kill us.

[Willy Lee]

6. Sounds about right. eom

[Name removed]

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[DrWeird]

9. LOL.

That's some funny shit.

[Name removed]

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[DrWeird]

12. You mean you're not making fun of Fox New propaganda?

A peaceful and democratic Iraq? LOL.

[Name removed]

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[Squeech]

31. Disagree

You can be an insurgent (armed resistance fighter) without being a terrorist (one who uses force against civilians for the purpose of political intimidation).

The defining characteristic isn't where you come from, it's who you're shooting at or blowing up. If you're careful to fire only at military or (maybe) police, i.e. at the people to whom the state has given the job of armed response, I don't call you a terrorist.

[Junkdrawer]

5. Depends on whether or not you want to acknowledge the legitimacy of..

the insurgency.

[knowbody0]

7. terrorists want to come here and kill us

insurgents defy the occupation of their homeland
both words are used in the psyop to justify killing bad guys
by the by - we are insurgents here ad DU only we fight with words and ideas.

[Cat Atomic]

10. An editor.

[whistle]

13. What does each mean...

Definitions of insurgent on the Web:

a person who takes part in an armed rebellion against the constituted authority (especially in the hope of improving conditions)
www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn


guerrilla: a member of an irregular armed force that fights a stronger force by sabotage and harassment
www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn


in opposition to a civil authority or government
www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn

Definitions of terrorist on the Web:

a person relating to terrorism
library.thinkquest.org/CR0212088/terglos.htm


One who utilizes the systematic use of violence and intimidation to achieve political objectives, while disguised as a civilian non-combatant. The use of a civilian disguise while on operations exempts the perpetrator from protection under the Geneva Conventions, and consequently if captured they are liable for prosecution as common criminals.
www.aeroflight.co.uk/definitions.htm


, n. A terrible soldier capable of striking terror into the heart of the most defensible nation in the world.
jonathanscorner.com/writings/hud/hud18.html


DEFINITION ALSO
www.mts.net/~dh56/refers/glossary.htm


a radical who employs terror as a political weapon; usually organizes with other terrorists in small cells; often uses religion as a cover for terrorist activities
www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn


characteristic of someone who employs terrorism (especially as a political weapon); "terrorist activity"; "terrorist state"
www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn

[MsUnderstood]

15. My personal definition

A terrorist is a person who uses terror worldwide to bring attention to their personal beliefs. They are on the offense (meaning they attack for negative attention)

An insurgent is somebody rebeling against the government in there own country. They are on the defense (meaning they are defending themselves from a government they don't like).

They are not inter-changeable in my mind but the media doesn't seem to agree.

[Willy Lee]

20. I agree.

The media seems to use whatever will get a rise out of the viewer.

[brainshrub]

16. A "terrorist" is a person, working independently of a nation-state,

who uses physical violence against civilian targets as a catalyst for political change.

Any American in Iraq, other than those working for charitable organizations, is not a civilian. They are either soldiers or mercenary contractors. (I don't care if you don't carry a gun, if the primary reason you are in Iraq is to make money, you are a mercenary in my book.)

Here is the bigger question: If one of those insurgent Iraqis manages to get to the US and blows up a building or two... is that terrorism or a flanking movement? After all, our military kills civilians all the time.

[hippiechick]

17. I would like to know

If the British Redcoats considered our forefathers 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' ... even though we so reverently bow to them as 'patriots'.

:shrug: Puts the freeper brain on spin, I'd suspect.


:hippie:

[Name removed]

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[hippiechick]

22. Well, actually ...

The 'patriots' - if you read Howard Zinn - weren't exactly representing "the will of the people" back then, either ...

:hippie:

[Name removed]

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[DrWeird]

25. If my high school history teacher had his numbers right...

In the early years of the war, only about 1/5 of the colonists were patriots/terrorists. 1/5 were tories. And the remaining 3/5 were undecideds.

[Name removed]

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[datasuspect]

27. hmmm....

you said:

"The insurgents/terrorists of Iraq are fighting for a dictatorship/ islamofascist state that does not reflect the will of the people."

what is the will of the iraqi people?

a 15% cap on corporate taxation?

the installation of u.s. controlled puppets for leaders?

i guess they couldn't possibly be fighting against the raw, naked aggression of a foreign invader to retain their dignity.

do you watch much fox news?

if you didn't know, there was a strong loyalist faction in colonial america that wanted to retain allegiance to the crown. the colonial insurgents resorted to guerrilla tactics and terrorism to be more effective against the british. oh, and they had a lot of help from france as well.

[Name removed]

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[Willy Lee]

33. Treasonous indeed.

[Name removed]

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[datasuspect]

35. how

will their country be 200% better?

please elaborate.

i know i shouldn't be encouraging you, but your comments are apalling.

[Name removed]

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[Hell Hath No Fury]

42. DAMN that shit is funny!

You ought to do this for a living, really! :+

[Willy Lee]

32. WTF?

"The insurgents/terrorists of Iraq are fighting for a dictatorship/ islamofascist state that does not reflect the will of the people."

I think they are fighting us because they're damned tired of us killing their husbands, sons, mothers, and children. I think the fact that we have leveled their towns and destroyed their infrastructure may have a little something to do with the fact that they are fightin us.

I think the will of the people is for us to leave!

[Name removed]

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[Willy Lee]

38. It's not going to happen.

So they should just roll over and accept the occupation of a foreign power in their country? We have killed tens of thousands of innocent people and THEY should stop fighting? It is for their own good, right?

Sounds like what repugs are telling us to do here at home.

[Name removed]

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[sandnsea]

18. There's both in Iraq

Insurgents oppose the occupation. The administration paints them out to be Saddam loyalists, Sadr militants, whatever suits the need of the day. And of course some of them do have political agendas of their own. Some people have come in from other countries to support the effort of getting the US out.

There's terrorists in Iraq that have come in from other areas. They're just terrorist groups. If the US left Iraq tomorrow, they'd continue to organize and fight all over the world, like they're doing now.

It's impossible, in my mind, to know who is who and where because this administration lies so much about them all.

[radwriter0555]

19. Iraqis are NOT TERRORISTS.

n/t

[DelawareValleyDem]

24. They're insurgents

when our government is supplying them with weapons. When they use them in a way we didn't anticipate, they're terrorists.

[leftofthedial]

26. "terrorist" literally means

whatever one of the bushgang wants it to mean at the moment.

"Insurgent" is a grab-bag label for anyone the US decides to kill in Iraq.

[DrWeird]

28. Both "insurgent" and "terrorist" are American propaganda.

"Terrorist" for obvious reasons. "insurgent" by definition implies rebels against an official government. So the US is using insurgent to add legitimacy to their puppet government.

The best term I can think of is "resistance." There's a lot of similarities between the Iraqis and the French Resistance.

[sr_pacifica]

37. A terrorist is anyone who, for a political end,

kills civilians and military personnel in order to "terrorize" a government into meeting whatever political agenda is at stake. Terrorist is a term always used by others. It is never used as a self-identifying term.

An insurgent is a citizen rising up against an occupying power, legitimate or not, of his or her country.

These are my own definitions. Terrorism, I will add, is usually used by a people who are not well-equipped with sophisticated weapons. The phrase "one person's terrorist, is another person's freedom-fighter" (or something like that), I think, is valid because terrorism might be seen by the "terrorists" as the only effective means for a less affluent and powerful people to fight for their freedom and rights.

So, the basic difference is that a terrorist may not be country-based whereas an insurgent always is. Also insurgents usually do not target civilian populations, but rather fight against an army. And the term terrorist is a name imposed on the "terrorist" by others.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

40. Semantics. "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter."

Some Terrorists/Insurgents:

Nelson Mandela
Fidel Castro
The "Sons of Liberty"
The "Minutemen"
Mohandas K. Gandhi (imprisoned under the "anti-terrorist" law.
Big Bill Heywood
Joe Hill
Sacco and Vanzetti
Mao-tse-Tung
Ho-Chi-Minh
The Partisans/Resistance in Europe in WWII
The IWW
The ANC

etc, etc.