IT'S NOT AN INSURGENCE

Our troops have begun to dismantle what has wrongly been called an "insurgency" in the terrorist stronghold of Fallujah-as Christopher Hitchens notes-what would you call the Iraqis fighting for freedom in their country's military or national guard-counter insurgents? The term insurgency is fallacious, especially because estimates of the "resistance" (also a romantic term that's slightly misleading like "insurgent" because it evokes the perception of noble independence movements- like our own-that sought to establish freedom and banish tyranny; the antithesis of Iraq's "insurgence" which only seeks to defeat America and impose Iranian style theocracy on that country) are about 25,000 in a country of 29 million. This is not a popular uprising as incompetent members of the press have lead us to believe.
There are large parts of the country that are pacified, stable, operating and not to mention completely capable of holding January elections. This is not to discount the importance of success in Fallujah, Samarra, Ramadi-the terrorist bases, nor should it be a rousing endorsement of our post war plan which has had some rather brutal unintended and unnecessary consequences. The larger truth that has sadly been mangled in partisan campaign bickering is that America has the chief role to play in defeating terrorism. Not the only role, but inarguably the leading one. It is our generations calling to do for our grandchildren what other generations have done for us: defeat the great evils our time. Islamic religious fanaticism is the disease spreading through the middle east. It is, like communism, fascism, and terrorism-an ideology bent on world domination. It isn't-as liberal loonies have told us-the way they do things over there, better not to interfere. Well okay for the heartless, but not interfering has created the culture of terrorism. It is not, as liberals believe, the result of too much American intervention. That is the subject of Pat Buchanans' new book who is certainly no liberal but just as wrong about some things. He believes that had the U.S. not entered WWII the communists and the fascists would have killed each other off: no cold war, no Korea, no Vietnam. It's a nice theory but what if someone won WWII. Then I guess it would be time for the uh-ohs. I guess its easier to write a book about what we should have done in WWII 50 yrs after we've done it. It is equally as easy to criticize Bush for invading Iraq to find WMD's that weren't there after the Kay report, but not before. We need forward thinking and historical context. The animals beheading Americans in Iraq aren't the minutemen. The Iraq war isn't a crusade. America didn't create the problems in the Middle East because we buy oil from Saudi Arabia. The "insurgents" aren't insurgents. They are terrorists. It's not an "uprising" it's terrorism. It's not religion, it's fascism. We need to call things by their rightful names because otherwise people get confused.