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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: Ilaine who wrote (84768)3/22/2003 9:31:33 AM
From: Clarksterh  Read Replies (1) of 281500
 
Cobalt - Terrorism is an attack on civilians and other non-legitimate military targets.

I agree this an important factor in determining when something is terrorism. But another factor is whether there are clear, self-consistent objectives for which the act is clearly a step towards those objectives.

If you do not include this factor then it would have been war had Timothy McVeigh attacked a military installation.

Of course whether a particular attack is terrorism or not will inevitably be a judgement. Is the defense industry a military institution or civilian? How about a trading organization in a 'war' against colonialism? There is rarely a totally clear demarcation between terrorism and 'legitimate' war.

BTW - I too find the attack on the Pentagon much less offensive than the attack on the trade center. But I think that the attack on the Pentagon is still over the line into terrorism because of my additional criteria.

Clark
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