Crazy Commie Update
Our crazy friend has condemned the Tiananmen Square massacre so I hereby retract my mischaracterization of his position. However, he still refuses to clearly condemn the murder of civilians or the use of mentally-challenged children as human bombs (yet he wonders why I would think that he supports those positions!).
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You really didn't though. "I think blowing people up is bad" is an incredibly vague statement, especially when you so vigorously defended the idea that mentally-challenged children are competent to make life or death decisions. Your refusal to clearly denounce this horrific human rights violation is beyond baffling!
As for your questions regarding terrorism:
Are we to call actions taken as far back as ancient history acts of terror?It's a good question and I can't say I have an answer. I've been too focused on what's going on today to worry about what no one can change (i.e. -- the past). Reserving the right to modify my opinion, I'll give you my gut feeling: I'm sure there are times in the past that we could call something a "terrorist" action, though I don't think anything that the Americans did to the British was terrorism. I suppose that what some people (though none of the Founding Fathers) did to the Native Americans was terrorism, but ( ... )
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It's obvious that the conflicts between whites and Native Americans has been a two way street regarding use of terror. It is also obvious who was on the receiving end of the terror in by far the majority of the cases. The difference is clear, Native Americans engaged in terror to defend territory they rightfully regarded as their own, while the Europeans/Americans engaged in terror to steal that land that is not rightfully theirs. This, I believe, is analogous to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hopefully the results will not be the same.
"economic warfare"
It can come in many forms; sanctions on life necessities, destruction of agriculture, destruction of a peoples means of production, blockades. There are all sorts of ways to try to ruin an economy, and these often have effects far more devastating than a random suicide bomber.
moer later...
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The difference is that Jews have an even older claim to the land -- the fact that some of the Jews emigrated there after the Holocaust doesn't change the fact that Jews have been living there continuously for thousands of years or that they declared independence from the British on land that was already majority-Jewish.
It can come in many forms; sanctions on life necessities, destruction of agriculture, destruction of a peoples means of production, blockades. There are all sorts of ways to try to ruin an economy, and these often have effects far more devastating than a random suicide bomber.I guess it would depend on the measure and the reason for the measure. Destroying an orchard for the sake of depriving people of food and livelihood is different that destroying it because ( ... )
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Yes. Assassinating a purely political figure (except, possibly, during wartime) is a terrorist act. Assassinating Sheik Yassin is not terrorism.
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