Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Clarksterh who wrote (84873)	3/22/2003 9:52:13 AM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 281500

You're right, a comprehensive definition of terrorism is rather lengthy. My own shorthand version is that terrorists are people whose goals are so extreme that they cannot be achieved through the normal political process. Rather than accept being marginalized, they attempt to achieve their goals through violence. This violence is directed at civilian targets in order to achieve the maximum psychological impact, rather than at military targets or infrastructure. Actually, the main difference between terrorists and freedom fighters isn't the targets. The main difference between a freedom fighter and a terrorist is that freedom fighters, aka revolutionaries, have the support of the populace, and terrorists don't. Mao said, "the people are like water, and the army is like fish." The people support the revolutionary army like water supports fish. For example, historically, up until recently, the people in Ireland supported the IRA. But the German people never supported Baader-Meinhof. I suspect that the main reason the Irish people quit supporting the IRA is that they started attacking civilians. So that backfired. It may well be that attacking the World Trade Center was the stupidist thing that Al Qaeda ever did, not just because it pissed us off, but because it offended potential supporters because it killed innocent civilians. But this may be my own fantasy. Given the hatred of "the Jews" which translates into a hatred of New Yorkers in general, and Wall Street types in specific, an attack on the WTC was a fantasy attack on "the Jews" -- despite the fantasy later expressed that no Jews were killed, and the fantasy that the Jews were actually responsible for the attack.