As membership of our fledgling ‘Underground Knowledge’ discussion group on the popular literary site Goodreads.com approaches 1200 – in fact it may have hit that milestone by the time you read this – one discussion thread is currently running hot. It’s simply titled: What is terrorism and who gets to define the term?
The discussion thread began with the following post from a member:
As a western woman, the definition of terrorism is something that fascinates me. I want to know if there is any valid, objective definition of terrorism.
I find it interesting that in media the choice of words is very selective. When someone here in (the) West barges into school and kills hundreds of innocent children, the news often comes out as ‘gunman massacred children at primary school’. I guess most would agree that this is a terrorist act but it is never labeled as an act of terrorism. So does it mean, an individual’s action cannot be deemed as such and for it to qualify the action must be carried out by an organised group?
Hate group is another (term) which I find very confusing. Are hate groups, terrorist groups too? KKK is often labeled as a hate group but in fact their actions were the same as any terrorist group.
If you have to ask someone to name a few terrorist groups you would like get ISIS/ISIL, Al Qaeda and Taliban as the answer. Most people wouldn’t even think of our North American grown KKK as a bunch of terrorists. Does it mean that for terrorism to qualify, a group has to be an alien agency threatening western democracies?
With the likes of Al Qaeda and more recently ISIS dominating world headlines, it’s not surprising our members (Undergrounders) are vocal on the subject. At least two and possibly more of our members are former intelligence agents. (In one case, the gentleman concerned is a Britt who worked for British intelligence and, on occasion, for the CIA). They have contributed to this discussion thread.
Member’s selected/abridged comments (abridged) follow:
When suicide bombers go in to a military congregation and blow up soldiers AND inadvertently kill nearby civilians, this is called “terrorism”. However, when the West uses drone strikes where terrorists have been reported to be, and inadvertently wipe out an entire hospital or school or village, this is called “collateral damage” or a “an unfortunate accident for which the White House sincerely apologizes for”.
Most ‘terrorist’ attacks are usually organised by the government or agencies as an excuse to change laws or go to war.
The lines blur with terms like terrorists and it often depends who is telling the story as to who the terrorists are… I would say the superpower nations are the biggest terrorists, especially if you do a body count of all their carnage around the planet in the last few decades.
When everything is leaked and Wikileaked, I do wonder who the history books will eventually record as being the biggest terrorists of the 21st Century.
Let’s make no mistake, the spoils of The War on Terror are most likely the biggest spoils of any war in history…
There is an old saying, “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.”…In 1946, the Jewish Irgun blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem killing some 90 people. That was one of dozens of similar Irgun attacks. One of the Irgun leaders, Menachem Begin later became prime minister of Israel… It seems terrorism, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
Given that over 1,000,000 Muslims (and counting) have died at the hands of Western aggression in the West’s stated attempt to reduce terrorism, I wonder what the history books of the future will call the War on Terror?
So we can all agree Islamic terrorism is very real. Denying its existence would be foolish, not to mention ignoring the fact that the moderate sectors of the Muslim world (who despite what Western media implies, is the VAST majority of Islamic population) are constantly mentioning their desire for terrorism to end (albeit without more phony wars). So to be clear, I stand for peace and the betterment of all peoples whatever nationality or race. But in saying all that, assessing whether terrorism is the big global threat to civilization is really a case of the devil being in the detail…The fine print is where many of the arguments that pass for fact in our shoddy 21st Century media (e.g. terrorists are everywhere, there’s not enough wealth in the world, Third World countries have limited resources etc, etc) often do not stack up under close inspection.
To read all the comments, or better still to have YOUR say, go to: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2122895-what-is-terrorism-and-who-gets-to-define-the-term?page=1
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