The King of Pointland

The Words We Don't Know We Don't Know

Apparently Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace gave an amusing press briefing yesterday. For starters, we're not supposed to refer to the enemy as 'insurgents' anymore:

"Over the weekend, I thought to myself, 'You know, that gives them a greater legitimacy than they seem to merit,' " Rumsfeld, at a Pentagon briefing yesterday, said of his ban on the I-word. "It was an epiphany," he added, throwing his hands in the air.

Encouraging reporters to consult their dictionaries, the defense secretary said: "These people aren't trying to promote something other than disorder, and to take over that country and turn it into a caliphate and then spread it around the world. This is a group of people who don't merit the word 'insurgency,' I think."

Suppose the insurgents want what Rumsfeld says they do. A strict Islamic theocracy is arguably a very well ordered system, don't you think? However, it's not clear that more than a few of the insurgents are Al Qaeda types:

BAGHDAD -- Before 8,500 U.S. and Iraqi soldiers methodically swept through Tall Afar two months ago in the year's largest counterinsurgency offensive, commanders described the northern city as a logistics hub for fighters, including foreigners entering the country from Syria, 65 miles to the west.

"They come across the border and use Tall Afar as a base to launch attacks across northern Iraq," Col. H.R. McMaster, commander of the Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, which led the assault, said in a briefing the day before it began.

When the air and ground operation wound down in mid-September, nearly 200 insurgents had been killed and close to 1,000 detained, the military said at the time. But interrogations and other analyses carried out in recent weeks showed that none of those captured was from outside Iraq. According to McMaster's staff, the 3rd Armored Cavalry last detained a foreign fighter in June.

As we now know, there was essentially no Al Qaeda presence in Iraq before we invaded, and I believe there's a consensus that Zarqawi (a Jordanian) and his ilk are not homegrown. My guess is that the vast majority of the insurgents do not want a global Caliphate, but rather a return to Sunni supremacy (military dictatorship or oligarchy) in Iraq.

Finally, Rumsfeld manages to be wrong in yet a third way: the dictionary defines "insurgent" as "[one who is] Rising in revolt against established authority, especially a government." To his credit, in the actual transcript Rumsfeld says "Maybe I'm wrong. I'll have to go to the dictionary."

Another part of the breifing, in which Rumsfeld and Pace were asked about the use of torture by Iraqi security forces, is both encouraging and discouraging at the same time:

When UPI's Pam Hess asked about torture by Iraqi authorities, Rumsfeld replied that "obviously, the United States does not have a responsibility" other than to voice disapproval.

But Pace had a different view. "It is the absolute responsibility of every U.S. service member, if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to intervene, to stop it," the general said.

Rumsfeld interjected: "I don't think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it; it's to report it."

But Pace meant what he said. "If they are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it," he said, firmly.

I'd love to have been a fly on Rumsfeld's head when he and the General next spoke after leaving the press room.

Posted by cradle at November 30, 2005 06:58 PM