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True enough, DamonLeigh,
considering that bin Laden was one of them in Afghanistan and America's abandonment of the mujahideen there was one of the disillusionments he suffered that made him so anti-American.
posted by
saul_relative
on January 13, 2005 at 5:01 PM
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That's as...
...good a definition as I've seen.
It's interesting that many of the mujahidin guys were originally recruited, trained and armed by the US for the fight against the USSR. (See my latest STOP THE WARS post for more on this).
Write on!
D
posted by
DamonLeigh
on January 5, 2005 at 9:14 AM
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For the most part, DamonLeigh,
I believe they are one and the same (or all four are the same). You are right about the bandying about of appellation and there should be a distinction made. I think anyone who kills to disrupt military or civilian activities regardless of who they kill (military, civilian, children, etc.) are terrorists, killing for the terror of it no matter their ideology. These people can be homegrown or extranationals. Rebels are those fighting against the established government (in this case, the puppet government of Alawi), and are Iraqis. That is also what the definition of an insurgent is, so I guess that the two terms are interchangeable. And the freedom fighters, the mujahadeen, are simply Muslims who fight for Islam against anyone they consider an oppressor or infidel source. These guys come from all over the Muslim world.
Now, whether or not the reporters and newspeople who write or tell their stories make these distinctions is, well, indistinct. But that's how I look at the distinctions between them, except when there are none, like, for example, a rebel mujahadeen terrorist, because sometimes they are all one and the same.
posted by
saul_relative
on January 1, 2005 at 1:20 PM
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There's a Lot...
...of this manipulation through language going on. Goebels would have been proud!
For instance, no one has yet defined for me the three different terms - terrorist, rebel, and insurgient. And where does freedom fighter fit into the overall scale?
D
posted by
DamonLeigh
on January 1, 2005 at 7:32 AM
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