News Defending Iraq: The Poll on External Forces and their Role in Iraq

[omin]

Who are those who defend against an invading army? Iraq is being invaded and many terms are floating around that label them. I want to start a poll, can you give me some names to help out with the choices for the poll.

The question I want to ask is similar to:

Which term rerpesents those who defending Iraq by making attacks on the US invading military:

Terrorists

Heros

Insurgents

Rebels

If you didn't like your leader and you were being invaded by an army that killed your family and friends, would not liking your leader be enough to forgive those who were killing your family and friends?

 

[member 5645]

We already have a thread about this.
Most of the insurgency is thought to be foreign.
Your English is broken and difficult to understand.
Your question's bias is transparent.

 

[Adam]

If you're defending against invasion, and you haven't harmed civilians, you're the good guy.

If you are the invader, and you kill civilians, you're the bad guy.

If you're the defender, and you kill civilians, you're the bad guy.

 

[russ_watters]

The question I want to ask is similar to:

Which term rerpesents those who defending Iraq by making attacks on the US invading military:

Terrorists

Heros

Insurgents

Rebels

If you didn't like your leader and you were being invaded by an army that killed your family and friends, would not liking your leader be enough to forgive those who were killing your family and friends?

This is largely a straw-man, as most of the recent attacks are not being directed against US military, but rather against Iraqi civilians and government authorities. But overall:

Terrorists target civilians, infrastructure, and government - most of the attacks in Iraq right now are terrorism. A large (but unknown) number are foreign terrorists.

Heros have a positive cause and take positive actions. They never do things such as targeting civilians, hiding amongst civlians, and using civilians as human shields. None of the anti-Iraq and anti-US fighters qualify. The ordinary Iraqi citizens who risk their lives to do things like join the new Iraqi police force often qualify though.

Insurgents and rebels are pretty much synonyms which can loosely describe those fighting against the new government. Its a tenuous link though, since most are looking for a re-establishment of some dictatorship, many are loyalists of Hussein.

 

[osskall]

This is largely a straw-man, as most of the recent attacks are not being directed against US military, but rather against Iraqi civilians and government authorities.

And, moreover... directed towards the red cross and other humanitary aid organisations. I can not see how that is to "defend Iraq".

Many people shout "USA out of Iraq", but the fact that there is so much violence over there is to me a reason that SOME EXTERNAL FORCES should be left there until the violence is over, not the other way around. A pity that USA "f#cked up" so much, I would rather see someone else take over, on the other hand I always keep on hoping that now they will only find the "rebels" and stop killing civilians by accident. But still, "enemies" is a totally inaccurate word for the american troups, and there are no "defenders" involved in this war...

 

[member 5645]

And, moreover... directed towards the red cross and other humanitary aid organisations. I can not see how that is to "defend Iraq".

Many people shout "USA out of Iraq", but the fact that there is so much violence over there is to me a reason that SOME EXTERNAL FORCES should be left there until the violence is over, not the other way around. A pity that USA "f#cked up" so much, I would rather see someone else take over, on the other hand I always keep on hoping that now they will only find the "rebels" and stop killing civilians by accident. But still, "enemies" is a totally inaccurate word for the american troups, and there are no "defenders" involved in this war...

Last time anyone asked the Iraqis, they'd like to do the job themselves, or have us do it before anyone else:

And despit the naysayers, the Iraqis spoke up in the latest Zogby poll:
(dont mind the link it's WSJ):
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/979368/posts

Six months? One year? Two years or more? Two thirds of those with an opinion urged that the coalition troops should stick around for at least another year.

I don't think it's all roses and cherries, but it's good to keep things in perspective.