The Limits of Terrorism?

Submitted by Joseph Shier (Canada), Apr 23, 2009 at 13:26

Off hand, I can think of many more successes by those who practice terrorism just in the years since 1990: the creation of the PA, Israel's abandonment of the Jewish communities in Gaza, Syria's elimination of her opponents in Lebanon, Hezballah's gain of a veto over Lebanon, Sudan's actions in Darfur, Russia's pacification of Chechniya.

We used to understand that the German bombing of Rotterdam was an act of terror, we even called Stalin's purges by that name. Terror is a tactic and normally is combined with other tactics to attain political goals. The limitation in question is not that of terrorism but of the way the question is posed.

in addition, one should not get any comfort from the findings on Muslim opinions you reference. There is widespread support for Arab rocket attacks on Israel civilians whether by Hezballah, Hamas or Fatah. there was no condemnation of the Mumbai attacks. And the fact that Hamas won an election did not preclude the same Hamas from carrying out a coup on Fatah to take over Gaza. Again the question posed in the poll was too limited and the interpretation placed on the results were aimed at reaching a particular view.

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