Or even most. Not that it really matters, because whether you accept the labels validity or not, murdering civilians to inflict terror and motivate a favorable political response based on fear is terrorism. If you want to fight a war over politics, field an army against another and let the soldiers kill each other, but when you start going after kids and clerics it's not "guerrilla warfare" it's terrorism. The difference isn't whether the attacker wears a uniform, but whether the target does. Terrorism is only used by groups who know they can't win a standup fight, but calling American militiamen sniping redcoats from behind a tree the same as blowing up a school bus insults my intelligence as much as my country.
That is how I would parse the distinction between a "terrorist" and a "guerilla" or "freedom-fighter." Regardless of whatever method you use, from conventional weapons to WMDs to suicide bombings to IEDs, if you target military personnel and apparatus, you are the latter. If you engage civilians in order to effect a political outcome, you are a terrorist. I have zero qualms about lumping in the aerial bombing campaigns of World War Two under this heading, either, or the Viet Cong habits of attacking sympathetic civilians.
On the other hand, collateral damage among civilians in a clear attempt to target legitimate military targets or guerillas or terrorists is acceptable, within reason. Obviously, blowing up a crowded theater to get a single soldier in the audience is a bit extreme, or decimating the civilian population of a town because terrorists are known to be hiding among them.
My only quibble is that, while no country is perfect, Allied bombings of non-military targets in WWII was very much the exception rather than the rule. Even in Dresden; Wikipedia notes (and cites; they didn't pull it out of thin air) that claim is disputed on the grounds that "several researchers have argued that not all of the communications infrastructure, such as the bridges, were in fact targeted, nor were the extensive industrial areas outside the city centre. " That's fine if you want to believe the Allies deliberately ignored significant military targets just to inflict suffering on the civilian German populace, but since the Allied commanders probably knew better than anyone that the German populace had little say in the war by then it seems dubious. All of that said, however, a case can be made, and if one accepts that case then I agree it would qualify as terrorism. Deliberately targeting civilians as an end in itself is reprehensible whoever does it, but if you insist on zero civilian casualties then every invading army will mount babies on the front of their tanks.
Whether we can sell our agreed upon definition of "terrorist" and "guerrilla" remains to be seen....
Honorbound and honored to be Bonded to Mahtaliel Sedai
Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.
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Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.
Love still can't be coerced.
Please Don't Eat the Newbies!
LoL. Be well, RAFOlk.
All Terrorists are Muslims… except the 94% that aren’t.
01/02/2010 10:42:12 PM
- 1715 Views
Lot of BS in there
01/02/2010 11:33:08 PM
- 517 Views
I'm afraid I have to agree with this.
01/02/2010 11:46:02 PM
- 469 Views
Well, no. Robbery accounts for a very small percentage of those attacks. Look at the chart.
01/02/2010 11:50:39 PM
- 427 Views
I found the so-called Islamophobic reply... allow me to quote it in its entirety.
01/02/2010 11:52:37 PM
- 447 Views
It's a valid complaint. *NM*
02/02/2010 01:49:08 AM
- 183 Views
I did note the rampant bias.
01/02/2010 11:48:55 PM
- 524 Views
Most of the Iraq violence isn't against the foreign occupier...
01/02/2010 11:54:44 PM
- 441 Views
Um, since when is all Mid-East terrorism against foreign occupiers?
02/02/2010 12:33:13 AM
- 594 Views
I would agree with this.
02/02/2010 02:33:47 AM
- 515 Views
It was bound to happen sooner or later.
02/02/2010 04:10:13 AM
- 541 Views
This is the only problem I have with "definitions"
02/02/2010 04:51:00 AM
- 421 Views
You're conflating two types of fighters who shouldn't be, I believe.
03/02/2010 06:16:21 AM
- 412 Views
I think you missed the point.
05/02/2010 05:15:40 AM
- 417 Views
One of us did.
05/02/2010 08:26:07 AM
- 591 Views
Churchill's justification of bombings cited civilians as the targets, IIRC
03/02/2010 12:46:16 AM
- 609 Views
I did say, "deliberately, " and for a reason.
03/02/2010 04:23:44 AM
- 556 Views
WTF? Are these people serious?
02/02/2010 02:19:05 AM
- 460 Views
Ah, good. I've driven you out of lurking. Now recommend me operas. *NM*
02/02/2010 02:41:30 AM
- 173 Views
So I presume the article meant to highlight that Muslim American citizens aren't all that violent?
03/02/2010 04:17:06 AM
- 510 Views
How many other attacks killed almost 3,000 people of over 90 different nations?
03/02/2010 06:26:23 AM
- 494 Views