Rumsfeld: No 'legitimate gripe' in Iraq

guardian: Rumsfeld: Don't Call Them 'Insurgents'

More than 2 years into the Iraq war, Donald H. Rumsfeld has decided the enemy are not insurgents.

"This is a group of people who don't merit the word 'insurgency,' I think," Rumsfeld said Tuesday at a Pentagon news conference. He said the thought had come to him suddenly over the Thanksgiving weekend.

"It was an epiphany."

Rumsfeld's comments drew chuckles but had a serious side.

"I think that you can have a legitimate insurgency in a country that has popular support and has a cohesiveness and has a legitimate gripe," he said. "These people don't have a legitimate gripe." Still, he acknowledged that his point may not be supported by the standard definition of 'insurgent.' He promised to look it up. Read more

db: Henceforth we will drop the term 'insurgents' - we agree with Rumsfelds epipheny. We'll just refer to them as 'the side that's winning'.