Insurgents rebel against recognized authority, either individually or as part of a group. The term has a negative connotation, but can also be used positively, such as with American revolutionaries. The US defines Iraqi freedom fighters as insurgents, but they see themselves as liberators. Insurgency involves violence, so peaceful protest is not usually labeled as such.
Insurgents are people, possibly part of a group, who are rebelling against a recognized authority such as a government. Insurgents can act individually or be part of an insurgency, which is a group of people with similar goals attempting to destabilize a recognized power. The use of the term insurgent is loaded, as it has an implicit negative connotation that does not always exist.
For example, Americans who fought in the Revolutionary War for the United States were rebels. However, US textbooks tend not to refer to these individuals as insurgents. Instead they may be called patriots or rebels. However, their act of defying the laws of the British monarchy constitutes an insurrection.
The United States currently defines insurgents as people who rebel against the new Iraqi government. However, these people don’t call themselves that. By their own definition, they are freedom fighters trying to liberate Iraq from occupation by infidels.
By labeling Iraqi freedom fighters as insurgents, you are making a precise political statement that defines how you feel about the US and UK presence in Iraq. Because some of these insurgents have killed American soldiers, they are also direct enemies of the United States. An insurgent or freedom fighter could argue that it would be impossible to kill a US soldier who was not present in Iraq. Their goal is to eliminate the US presence in their country.
This is not to say that the tactics of the Iraqi insurgents are commendable. They are killing their own countrymen, political and religious leaders as well as American and other countries’ military forces. However, the Iraqi insurgent finds his position defensible, due to what he feels is an intolerable way of life.
In extreme uses of the label, some governments may classify those who speak out against certain government policies as insurgents. However, since being an insurgent usually involves violence or warfare of some kind, peaceful protest is hard to label as insurgency.
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