WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House danced around on Wednesday about whether "insurgents" was an acceptable term for the enemy of U.S.-led forces in Iraq.
Bush did not use the term in his 34-minute speech on Wednesday at the Council on Foreign Relations. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last week argued that those fighting U.S.-led forces in Iraq did not deserve to be called an "insurgency."
But Vice President Dick Cheney did slip in one "insurgents" in a 21-minute speech at Fort Drum, New York, this week.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said he had not heard any discussion that the term should be made taboo.
But he said it was important for Americans to "have a clear sense of who the enemy is." Bush has called them rejectionists, Saddamists, and terrorists.
Webster's dictionary defines an insurgency as an uprising or insurrection against established authority that is not well organized.
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