I'd be curious to see the statistics regarding attacks on US troops vs. attacks on civilians. I suspect civilians would be higher, but not by much.
Depends on whose figures you go with, there's no legitimate way to really determine, but the coalition keeps a count of everyone who died directly from an attack. Loosely speaking, around a hundred thousand, almost all from terrorist attacks. That's why most of us don't mind calling all the attackers there terrorists, when your kill ration is about 30 of your own citizens for every 'foriegn opressor' you're pretty far beyond claiming legitimate collateral damage.
Attacks on US troops by terrorists are still acts of terrorism. I agree that targteing an occuying force, even in a fashion which may result in occassional civilian deaths, falls under 'freedom fighter' but the fact that most attacks, especially recently, have been against their own citizens or police with no US troops nearby puts the lie to that. You also have to have some moral justification when claiming freedom fighters. Saddam Hussein and his regime were not one lick better than the Nazis, US occupation has been anything but draconian. Carry the freedom fighter analogy to far and people can justify attack US troops in Haiti. The occupation force spent most of it's time doing patrols and assisting locals. As justifications for violent resistance go, 'let's go blow up a bunch of our guys in the hope we might kill a few of the half-dozen heavily armored soldiers who are delivering food, water, medicine and equipment to our own people' is somewhere down there with cutting peoples tongues out to keep them from using foul language. The reason is highly questionable to begin with and certainly doens't justify the means, so I would say it's perfectly acceptable to justify all attacks in Iraq as terrorist, and certainly any where civilians were present.
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
- Albert Einstein
King of Cairhien 20-7-2
Chancellor of the Landsraad, Archduke of Is'Mod
- Albert Einstein
King of Cairhien 20-7-2
Chancellor of the Landsraad, Archduke of Is'Mod
All Terrorists are Muslims… except the 94% that aren’t.
01/02/2010 10:42:12 PM
- 1714 Views
Lot of BS in there
01/02/2010 11:33:08 PM
- 516 Views
I'm afraid I have to agree with this.
01/02/2010 11:46:02 PM
- 468 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
- 446 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
True, but I was referring to attacks on US soldiers.
02/02/2010 01:47:55 AM
- 414 Views
That's still a bad benchmark
02/02/2010 10:00:23 AM
- 506 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
- 540 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
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I think you missed the point.
05/02/2010 05:15:40 AM
- 416 Views
One of us did.
05/02/2010 08:26:07 AM
- 590 Views
Churchill's justification of bombings cited civilians as the targets, IIRC
03/02/2010 12:46:16 AM
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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