What makes a terrorist a terrorist?

I think that terrorism is just like morality.... it's all relative to the context and your point of view.This actually is reminding me of our discussion about binary logic vs fuzzy logic.It seems that some people have to classify others and have everything defined specifically and some don't

Quite right. And that's why a "war on terrorism" makes no sense.The big puzzle to me has always been Tony Blair's role in this. Can somebody from that side of the pond explain it. I understand Bush's involvement, but Blair is intelligent enough to know better.

well the buzz bombs ie the V-1 unmanned plane was a continuation the attacks on london , given their clear inaccuracy as a missle they would fall under indisriminate bombing .. a terror based tactic .. but in this case we are looking at a nation waging war by any means , and taking the V-1 weapon as part of the whole effort is not a terrorist action its war with terror tacticscruise missle have the problem that it is claimed they are very accurate , and are thus used to target very specific points , thus a claim can be made that they are a war weapon aimed to kill combatents , any civilians are hit by mistake ..given that any form of conflict is terrifying i do not think that crusie missle use is terrorisum style combat .If you used cruise missle to target say markets ,hotels ,theater ,ect then you would have a clear case of terrorist style attacksPLEASE note i offer here no opinion on bush/ blairs actions .

what TB really thinks only he knows ,but the uk has had a long terrorist involded history , from its days of empire ...it has vast numbers of overseas industrial and economic links to protect , .. the UK has been firmly in the US camp for a long time and is viewed as such , and so is as much a target ... the UK also used its US links to balance its european links , never really totally joining one or other ..

There is a *rhetorical* definition of terrorist:"a radical who employs terror as a political weapon" (http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=terrorists&gwp=16)But, you might say that is 'relative' or such. So, hate and murder are essentially the same (biblically).Certainly I'm a 'terrible' to my children during spanking, quiet-time, or whatever.Christian Fundies are a political terror when they condemn homosexuals and/or persecute one another.I'm a terror to you if I intimidate you on the EvC forum ... or make evolution or creation appear stupid.And the list goes on and on, ADNAUSEUM.The point is we all employ terror as a political weapon to relative extents:We're all born terrorists (half-beast half-devil or whatever): I'm a terrorist and you're a terrorist.You or I may advertise ourselves as 'love and beauty' or something other than 'terrorist'.I suppose our cursing president is the only non-terrorist on the block.

I think we're kinda missing the point when we talk about "innocent" victims. The aim of terrorism is not to kill the victims - it's to terrorize the survivors.

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I agree with you that these were terrible black marks against America, very bad, very wrong thing to do. But many felt as I do about it at the time and still do. It's not like it's standard American policy, it was just very bad decisions made at the time. Not terrorism. Not made with any malice against the people but for desperately and badly determined strategic reasons.Terrorism might be defined as targeting the innocent as a policy out of sheer malice or self-righteous hatred. Might, I don't know what a good definition would be. It's more like criminal activity than like war. And while it probably has state support in the case of Hamas and Hezbollah and the like, it's not conducted by a nation but by self-appointed vigilante groups. Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Very few incidents would qualify as terrorism under that definition. Maybe 9/11. But the insurgency in Iraq, for example, is a form of self-defense carried out by the weak against the strong. Similarly, in Israel/Palestine, both sides are "defending themselves" from perceived agression.Malice and hatred can be a factor in almost any human endeavour, but it isn't really a "defining" factor. Like George Washington and his bunch?

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You may be right that malice can't be a defining factor but I'm not sure. I do know that self-defense as an explanation for the actions of Hamas and Hezbollah is self delusion to the max. Or the Weathermen. Or the bombing of the Oklahoma building.George Washington was acting on behalf of a people seeking nationhood, that had been discussed and discussed and argued and argued and not entered into lightly either.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Hamas and Hezbollah would say the same thing.The real self-delusion is pretending that what somebody else does is terrorism but what we do is patriotism.

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Actually, honestly, I don't think Hamas and Hezbollah WOULD say the same thing, except for propaganda purposes, not among themselves and in Arabic. They would say that they are prosecuting Allah's cause against the infidel.You just like that equivalence formula. Makes you feel good. Bears no relation to actual reality though.

"Prosecuting" Allah's cause or defending Allah's cause - same thing. Allah's cause or Allah's people's cause - same thing."Defending" yourself by invading a foreign country? Or defending your own country by attacking foreign invaders? Which is "terrorism"?

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My point in saying they are prosecuting Allah's cause was that they are not defenders but aggressors -- out to take the world for Allah. Politically incorrect to the max but the truth is. You also have who is the invader backwards. EVERYBODY who is not a Muslim is an invader according to them.That's OK. We will never agree. It's futile to argue anything here at EvC. The positions are dug in from the getgo.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Makes no difference. We're talking about the motivation here. What makes a terrorist a terrorist? You know not whereof you speak.
In fact, I am very pro-Israeli (if not necessarily pro-Israeli-government).I have not said I agree with Hamas and Hezbollah. I have said that I don't think they are motivated by malice and hatred.All that knee-jerking isn't good for you at your age.

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There are always multiple motivations and causes. Perhaps terrorists are alienated from life in many ways and wouldn't be drawn to terrorism if things were working out better for them. I don't think that fits the profile of some of the 9/11 criminals though. So who knows. But the conscious motivation of Muslim terrorism is to take the world for Allah and defeat and punish his enemies.I'm glad you're pro-Israel but you're completely wrong about Hamas and Hezbollah.