Over the last few days, there's been a change in the way news from Iraq gets reported. Actually, it probably started months ago when the the US presence in Iraq took on a new official name: occupation. At first, that term seemed like nothing more than a legalism, but over time it crept into news reporting, and even conversation. The US occupation of Iraq. If you had said such a thing back in the spring, you would have been looked at as terribly Anti-US. Think how common that phrase is now.
And now, with the rapid spread of fighting over the last week, a new word is entering the vernacular of our Iraq experience. Resisitance.
Here's paragraph from CNN.
The fatal fights, which lasted 7 1/2 hours on the western outskirts of Baghdad Friday, came as the U.S. Consulate in Baghdad warned Americans to take precautions, citing rumors of a "day of resistance" planned for this weekend.
Granted, the term is parenthetical here, but more and more often, the actions in Iraq are being described as "the Iraqi Resistance." Why is that important? Because in American minds, the Resistance is the good guys.
The Resistance calls to mind the underground in Europe holding out against the Nazis. Or Eastern Europeans protesting against the Soviet Union. Even American patriots fighting against the British.
When we start to talk about this situation in these terms, it has a huge psychological impact. If Americans come to speak of our situation in Iraq as the occupation and discuss the Iraqi fighters as the resistance, it represents a 180 degree spin of our mindset. It leaves no doubt where good and evil lay.
Either we will soon begin to sicken of the situation, or we will content ourselves in the role of oppressor.
