Another straw man. I claimed nothing of the sort. And your question is irrelevant to the post I quoted and my response to it.
If the discussion centers around the working definition of belligerent as it pertains to people acting in opposition to governments/countries (IOW, as a NOUN--not an adjective, not an adverb), then it doesn't do any good to use it as an adverb.
People can be belligerent by behaving belligerently and not be belligerents in the eyes of the law. Goes back to my statement that words have meaning. We should use them wisely. My 4y/o is belligerent damn near every day. It doesn't make him a belligerent in this sense now, does it?
It's one of the reasons why I don't like that word as a descriptor for the classification of people who fall in that middle ground. The behavior doesn't always measure up to the standards set by law, but they do meet the dictionary definition. So while not technically incorrect to label them as such, the connotation can be damaging unjustly. Unfortunately, I don't know of an alternative that better fits the scenario off the top of my head. We live in a different world these days and the enemy comes in many forms, few of which involved armies and guns.
And completely OT, that word is now starting to sound funny when I say it in my head.
