macky_516

This was a subject that was given to us the beginning of my senior year in highschool that lasted the entire year. How would you define terrorism? What makes you a terrorist? If this sounds like a simple answer then think about it a little more and you'll see how complicated it gets

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Mr. K

Barronmore

How's this:

Terrorism= the calculated use of violence (or threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear.

Terrorist= one who uses terrorism.

Arrianna wanted me to post this for her....

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Chubz

Well, there's the saying "One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist," which is somewhat true.

Generally if you are a terrorist, your targets are civilians, not military. The whole point of terrorism is to create shock and fear in the public, in hopes that public opinion will sway the government, or that the society will crumble under the weight of all the bombings and terrorist acts. They can't attack the government or the military head on, so they try and destabilize the civilian population.

A freedom fighter would attack the problem head on, without killing civilians (especially killing civilians in a public manner). They would also try to rally the people to their cause, and form a revolution rather than placing bombs in public. Sure, the revolution could be considered a terrorist act, but if done by the people themselves, then it makes the event somewhat kosher.

Terrorist groups are only looking out for themselves, and only want power for themselves. They are not interested in the entire civilian population staging a revolution, but they instead want to attain power so that THEY can rule over the population. You can't just walk into a terrorist organization and they'll let you join. It's an 'elite' (and I use the term loosely) group of people, where only a minority is allowed in.

If you look at any terrorist organization (PLA, Hezbollah, Al-Qaida, IRA, FLQ) they have their own plans for running the government, which they want to impose on the public. The reason why they become terrorists is because they know that the only chance they have of gaining power is by taking it by force. They aren't backed by the majority of the public, so instead they try and have the government and public submit to them by blowing up planes, cars, and killing people.

I guess to sum this up, if you seek out and attack civilians, then you sir, are a terrorist.

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ordinateur

What's a terrorist uh... I'd say it's a human being that doesn't like life, that is desperate to end up dead by helping some so called "superior."

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macky_516

but most of those organizations are focusing on attacking military forces. sure they attack civilians but they attack us forces as well. doest that make them terrorists? there are sometimes where us as us forces attack civilians when coming into this country and other times. are we part terrorist?
im saying this to prove we are terrorists as much as they are but to show that theres alot more to being a terrorist than just attacking civilians

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Arrianna

I'm going to call bull on that.

Those organizations are not focused on attacking military forces, they sometimes attack military forces. Their primary targets are the civilians of the governments they wish to sway such as Spain. They seek to instill terror in those citizens. They also hide behind citizens so that any retalitory attack will place civilians in danger.

The US does not target civilians ever to influence the country involved. Sometimes citizens are killed as a result of military actions especially when they have been used as sheilds. That is called war and to think otherwise is delusional.

To claim that the US is a terrostist state is moral relativity at it's worst.

Yes, a government can be a terrorist governement if it attacks citizens (including it's own) to frighten people into doing what it wants. They do exist in places like China (Tiananmen Square) and the old USSR.

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Chubz

The reason they're attacking U.S. Forces is simply because the American Army is there. They know that they will ultimately lose if they attack the American army head on, so instead they use guerilla tactics, and plan in advance so that they can launch a quick attack, then escape away into the hills. It doesn't do them any good to fight long battles, and whenever one does occur, they lose a lot of men.

If the American army wasn't there, these groups would still attack civilians. The war between the Shiites and Sunnis is strictly between the radical groups of both sides, and civilian bodies turn up daily in Iraq. In Afghanistan, the terrorists attack schools that teach girls, and kill women teachers, and anyone involved in the school. Yes, there are clashes between the groups and the military, but it is simply because they eventually have to come into contact. Not only is the military constantly out looking for them, but the groups have to stall the military from finding them, so they send out little brigades to do what damage they can. If they had a choice, they wouldn't attack the military head on. Their main target is the public.

As for the US Forces being seen as terrorist, there are civilian casualties whenever military operations happen. Unfortunately that ratio is extremely high in Iraq, because the military and government has not handled the situation properly. Not only that, but there are several examples of US troops simply killing civilians without regard, which does not help the matter. However, the main goal of the army is to bring stability to the country. The army does not intentionally seek out and kill civilians in order to send messages to the terrorists.

But like I said, terrorist attacks are meant to put the population at unease. What is happening is that the terrorists will launch an attack, killing civilians. The group will then say they attacked because of America. The population (not wanting any more explosions) will then blame the explosion on the Americans, using the logic that if the Americans weren't there, then the terrorists wouldn't be setting off bombs. It's pretty much saying that the Americans FORCED the terrorists to set off bombs, which isn't true. Even if the military wasn't there, they would be setting off those bombs until they achieved their goal.

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Arrianna

Except it's back firing because more and more of the citizens there aren't buying it anymore and the reason there has been so many sucessful raids against the terrorists is because the citizens are turning them in to the military.

..and you're right, it's not true that they would stop. That's like a rapist telling you if you don't struggle it wouldn't happen.

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_gwenibe_

I agree with both of those, What I was going to add though is that terrorism could also be said as being the act of putting terror into people through whatever means, but is that taking the definition a little too literally?

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macky_516

but what about attacking america? were they trying to force us americans to start to disbelieve in our gov and switch to theirs? what was their goal in all those attacks?

it is classified as being a terrorist act but the goal wasnt to overthrough the gov. for them to take over. but they do do it to prove their point and to reach other goals.


terrorist acts are acts with the purpose of causing a psychological effect on the populationg but its not just to over through one gov. they sometimes have an even bigger goal in mind or just one smaller acheivement they want to accomplish. but its all to cause terror in order to acheive their goals.

but is there more to it?
alot of different organizations from the past used all kinds of psycological warfare that spread fear into populations just to acheive their goals. when we bombed japan we didnt just specifically target a military base and it was part a psychological attack on them. but because we were at a state of war does that change the fact that we wanted to inflict terror on the japanese gov. at the time in order to stop the fight?(it sounds like im breaking a taboo for speaking about this but it still counts. and i love my country with all my heart so dont think im a traitor)

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