Menage à Trois Bingo

I've been hearing sentences like this a lot lately: "We're [doing
thus-and-so] to dampen the resistance."

Would someone kindly explain to our politicians, commentators and
journalists that getting Iraqi insurgents wet is not likely to have any
effect on violence in the region? That what they actually wish to do is
to *damp* the resistance?

To damp: to restrict airflow to a fire; metaphorically, to reduce the
vigor of something that might be itself metaphorically described as a
fire.
To dampen: to get something wet.

You can't get a fire wet.