Insurgent

Help Me Understand the Word Insurgent

Perhaps you can help me understand something that puzzles me a bit.

Every time I consume the news or watch the pundits, the Taliban in Afghanistan are described as insurgents.

I understand the the US, along with an international coalition, invaded Afghanistan to route out the terrorists who planned the 9/11 acts. This was a reasonable action.

Somewhere along the way, the mission changed. Put on the back burner by the US in favour of a still inexplicable invasion of Iraq, retribution changed to a push to build a new country. At first, it was freeing women from oppression. Then it somehow turned into a nation-building exercise.