Thread: What is a Terrorist?

Originally Posted by Oneironaut

I'll take that into consideration. However, I still believe that the most basic definition is one that supercedes whether or not there is an "established law" that is being broken. Using terror to force a point is what is requisite of terrorism, regardless of whether the act is "criminal" or not. As we all know, the idea of whether something is "criminal" or not can be either altered or completely hidden from public opinion, by those with enough influence.
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If that's the case, then every side in every war that has ever been fought has been "terrorist". I think the definition is supposed to be more specific than that.

Kleenex : tissue paper
Jell-O : gelatin

(Terrorist) : (terrorist)

Ok, I'll elaborate. "Terrorist" itself does have a dictionary definition. However, I believe over the years we have (or rather, certain governments) have been able to brand the word to a specific type (or stereotype) of people.

So, when we really SHOULD be saying "a palestinian terrorist, an islamic terrorist, a muslim terrorist", we have been conditioned to simply use: Terrorist. It's marketing 101 - on a global scale. I often wonder, do people in the middle-east refer to us as terrorist? Does Al-Jazira (or whatever network) report our 'counter attacks' as terrorism?

SIDE NOTE: Not to go a little off topic, but I was watching this show on PBS of this film crew that went to Iran to tour and shoot... eh, film. I couldn't believe how the people there are so pro-american. Well, sure, we are fighting the Iraqi's, but still, our past with them is not so clean. BUT, my point: the guy had someone explain the differences between the Sunni and Shiite factions. I was suprized to learn that the difference was VERY LITTLE! People kill each other over the smallest thing. While the guy explained it was more to do with land, still, the same could be said of the Christian and Protestants (and probably others).