No, the new politically correct term for the Iraqi terrorists who frag our servicemen is “the Resistance.” Just like the French underground that fought against Hitler. Oh, and the word “terrorist” is a no-no, too. That’s the message from Harper’s magazine, whose June cover story is titled “Beyond Fallujah: A Year With the Iraqi Resistance.” The William Morris types at Harper’s don’t believe in computers, so you won’t find this on the Internet, but Tim Graham of National Review Online provides a link to a fawning summary of Patrick Graham’s (no relation to Tim, obviously) Harper’s story by Washington Post’s magazine critic, Peter Carlson. Carlson, good liberal that he is, is careful always to put the word “terrorist” in quotation marks, as in his headline, “Embedded With the Resistance: Iraqi ‘Terrorists’ Tell Their Story.”
Carlson writes:
“Mohammed and his friend Abu Ali are two respectable, middle-class Sunni men, building contractors with wives and engineering degrees. But they also attack Americans with roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades. Why?
“Not out of love for Saddam Hussein or al Qaeda — they detest both — but because they’re angry that American troops killed civilians in Fallujah….”
Oh yes, and we Americans are a wee bit angry that the noble “Resistance” fighters also killed civilians, U.S. civilians, in Fallujah, and then, just for funsies–or maybe in the spirit of anti-colonialism–burnt their bodies to toast and hung the cinders from a bridge.
And Mohammed the building contractor! He’s just like us! More from Carlson:
“‘The more he talked,’ [Patrick] Graham writes, ‘the more he seemed like someone who might be invited to give a prayer breakfast at the White House, where he could have delivered a sermon against gay marriage.'”
And lest you wonder which side Graham and Carlson are on, read this (from Carlson’s story):
“Graham asked Abu Ali if he thought the resistance could defeat the Americans.
“‘We don’t know what the result of this will be.’ Abu Ali replied.
“Graham doesn’t attempt to predict the future, either. But his fascinating article is not likely to leave you with a feeling of giddy optimism.”