Friday, October 14, 2005

No More "Insurgents"-- Now, Even the Sunni Call Them "Terrorists"

I have long wondered when the tide would turn. This week, apparently, it has.

What am I talking about? It is this:

The Iraqis are at last referring to those who are bombing and shooting them as "terrorists."

They are not calling them "insurgents." They are not calling them "freedom fighters." Whatever it is that the Western news media are calling them, the Iraqis are no longer calling them.

To the Iraqis they are now bona fide terrorists. Period.

Two days ago I quoted a man injured in a suicide bombing in Tall Afar as saying:

I don't think those terrorists know the meaning of God, and they don't have the least right to claim that they're religious.
Yesterday, after a bomb had gone off in front of their headquarters, Alaa Makki, a senior party official with the largest Sunni(!) political party in Iraq (the Iraqi Islamic Party) condemned the Baghdad attack, saying the party would "use the political process to fight terrorism and promote stability in Iraq"

When the Sunni leaders in Iraq start referring to the "insurgents" as terrorists it should be time for the US news media to wake up and take notice.

Unless we know something that the average, ordinary, man-in-the-street Iraqi doesn't know, we should respect their judgement and join them in calling these terrorists terrorists!

But don't bet on it.