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Oh fercryin' out loud!
Reader comment on item: [Beslan Atrocity:] They're Terrorists - Not Activists
Submitted by Anonymous Coward (Australia), Sep 8, 2004 at 01:58
"Terrorist" has become a catch-all for anyone and any group whose actions we disapprove of.When you jump on the label-'em-a-terrorist bandwagon you delegitimise a group's raison d'etre. Of course, not all groups have legitimate or reputable methods, but to tar them all with the same brush lends none of them credence.
The ANC were a terrorist organisation. So were the PLO. So were George Washington & his boys back in the day.
The truism has become trite now, but one man's terrorist really IS another man's freedom fighter.
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Reader comments (175) on this item
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Title | Commenter | Date | Thread |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pakistan News... [8 words] | Pakistan News | Apr 28, 2011 06:39 | 184635 | ||
| Silence is a weapon too - Reply [133 words] | Slim | Sep 4, 2005 09:12 | 25469 | ||
| Silence is a weapon too [194 words] | James.R.Edwards | Aug 25, 2005 09:01 | 25097 | ||
| BBC's discovery of Terrorism [156 words] | Rob James | Jul 11, 2005 18:09 | 23361 | ||
| Civilian casualties [96 words] | Cheryl Young | Nov 12, 2004 23:39 | 18354 | ||
| Interesting but ironic [101 words] | Jasper Ines | Oct 20, 2004 07:55 | 17815 | ||
| Fears [479 words] | Joanne Cottone | Oct 13, 2004 08:38 | 17625 | ||
| "Freedom fighters"? Even they refer to themselves as "terrorists"! [200 words] | alvin_day | Oct 4, 2004 22:08 | 17518 | ||
| A courageous voice speaking out [117 words] | Bhupendra Bharti | Oct 2, 2004 07:48 | 17496 | ||
| Terror is terror [34 words] | Treek | Oct 1, 2004 16:51 | 17491 | ||
| Use the T-Word [289 words] | Raphael Cohen-Almagor | Sep 30, 2004 11:36 | 17478 | ||
| "Freedom Fighters" in Nicaragua? [118 words] | John Keagan | Sep 30, 2004 01:39 | 17471 | ||
| NPR's Al Qaeda "Officials" [62 words] | John | Sep 27, 2004 14:15 | 17407 | ||
| Intention [50 words] | Dave | Sep 20, 2004 09:04 | 17041 | ||
| Savages? [221 words] | Samuel P. Panuccio | Sep 20, 2004 03:44 | 17040 | ||
| Terrorism defined [87 words] | David | Sep 19, 2004 11:26 | 17029 | ||
| One man's terrorist [51 words] | Jerry Normoyle | Sep 18, 2004 00:26 | 17022 | ||
| Politcal Correctness Gone Berserk [87 words] | Margaret Broomfield | Sep 17, 2004 10:40 | 17016 | ||
| Canadian PC Media [146 words] | Jeff Bercovitch | Sep 16, 2004 19:47 | 17013 | ||
| Islam is THE problem [103 words] | Hari Iyer | Sep 16, 2004 01:10 | 16998 | ||
 Thank you for your Ignorance [218 words] | Kiran | Mar 7, 2009 02:47 | 16998 | ||
| Thank you, Daniel [15 words] | Maria Ivanova | Sep 15, 2004 12:56 | 16990 | ||
| The Marxist Paradigm [357 words] | Diane Wolff | Sep 15, 2004 10:13 | 16984 | ||
| Author is an obscurantist [8 words] | Andre | May 22, 2013 02:28 | 16984 | ||
| Terrorism is a tactic, not a movement [114 words] w/response from Daniel Pipes | Bill Keane | Sep 15, 2004 03:28 | 16975 | ||
| Another idea, a term, but not for the terrorists as such [33 words] | Nancy Sutherlan | Sep 14, 2004 19:45 | 16963 | ||
| My thoughts exactly [35 words] | Phaedra Bagration | Sep 14, 2004 18:44 | 16957 | ||
| "they're terrorists" [41 words] | Steven Jacoby | Sep 14, 2004 06:36 | 16938 | ||
| Islamist origins? [36 words] | Jake Morrison | Sep 14, 2004 04:19 | 16936 | ||
| World journalists in Dhimmitude [79 words] | Bhupendra Bharti | Sep 13, 2004 12:20 | 16927 | ||
| Euphemism [28 words] | Edward Short | Sep 13, 2004 11:24 | 16923 | ||
| Both ways [111 words] | Malik Muhammad | Sep 12, 2004 23:44 | 16918 | ||
| Well done [8 words] | Tsahi Niv | Sep 12, 2004 15:42 | 16913 | ||
| Major Media: Non commital buzzwords [59 words] | Mark | Sep 11, 2004 22:09 | 16908 | ||
| Maalot School - Beslan article redaction by AP [623 words] | Mitch | Sep 11, 2004 10:36 | 16902 | ||
| Bravo! [1 words] | George Kun | Sep 11, 2004 09:32 | 16900 | ||
| How true [126 words] | Patrick Watkins | Sep 10, 2004 21:42 | 16897 | ||
| Algeria...a real catastrophe [51 words] | George | Sep 10, 2004 20:40 | 16895 | ||
| Activists, Indeed. [52 words] | Barry Miller | Sep 10, 2004 17:37 | 16894 | ||
| Another term [13 words] | Lawrence Shuman | Sep 10, 2004 17:07 | 16893 | ||
| Post article openswith the work "terrorists" [12 words] | R. Roistacher | Sep 10, 2004 16:22 | 16892 | ||
| Point of View [87 words] | Max Edison | Sep 10, 2004 14:19 | 16890 | ||
| It's murder, even if the excuse is political. [18 words] | Judith Rachmani | Sep 10, 2004 13:30 | 16889 | ||
| Terrorism is terrorism. Period. [67 words] | Marcos Berenstein | Sep 10, 2004 08:25 | 16885 | ||
| Euphemisms for Terrorism [26 words] | Arlinda DeAngelis | Sep 10, 2004 00:01 | 16883 | ||
| Perp(etrator)s [952 words] | Ethel C. Fenig | Sep 9, 2004 23:48 | 16882 | ||
| Gee, how come it's not terrorism when YOU bomb THEM? [74 words] | Hugh Dillon | Sep 9, 2004 19:46 | 16880 | ||
| Horror on both sides [63 words] | Zhivago | Sep 9, 2004 19:20 | 16879 | ||
| So you would define as terrorist anyone the Israelis shoot? [106 words] | Samuel | Sep 9, 2004 19:17 | 16878 | ||
| Who followed the links? [110 words] | soren velice | Sep 9, 2004 19:03 | 16877 | ||
| What is Jemaah Islamiyah? [134 words] | John Sharpe | Sep 9, 2004 18:22 | 16876 | ||
| terrorism = (new) communism [95 words] | Sadia | Sep 9, 2004 18:12 | 16875 | ||
| Freedom fighters [25 words] | Tom Strini | Sep 9, 2004 15:30 | 16872 | ||
| Thank you [22 words] | Louis M. Steinberg | Sep 9, 2004 13:22 | 16869 | ||
| There are other terrorists, too. [94 words] | Peter J. Herz | Sep 9, 2004 12:58 | 16868 | ||
| Homicide Bombers: Let's call them what they are... [149 words] | R. Williams | Sep 9, 2004 11:28 | 16866 | ||
| True Leaders Do Not Shirk Verbal or Physical Combat [183 words] | Joe Feig | Sep 9, 2004 11:01 | 16865 | ||
| What would you call the Iran Contras? [74 words] | J. | Sep 9, 2004 09:58 | 16864 | ||
| "Terrorism" is not the clearest word itself [134 words] | Kirby | Sep 9, 2004 09:29 | 16863 | ||
| A commenter misses the point [70 words] | Aubie Arrow | Sep 9, 2004 09:02 | 16862 | ||
| The Western Press Misleads Its Readers [334 words] | Lawrence I. Gould | Sep 9, 2004 08:53 | 16860 | |
| Victims or terrorists? A matter of semantics, perhaps? [110 words] | P. Oakley | Sep 9, 2004 07:33 | 16859 | ||
| PC and Terrorism [341 words] | J.T Fiddes | Sep 9, 2004 07:23 | 16858 | ||
| Newton's apple at last [175 words] | PC | Sep 9, 2004 05:34 | 16857 | ||
| More political correctness [112 words] | Toby Beck | Sep 9, 2004 04:50 | 16856 | ||
| Euphanisms have their place [161 words] | RJ Kennedy | Sep 9, 2004 02:53 | 16855 | ||
| By any other name.... [164 words] | Matt Fyffe | Sep 9, 2004 01:09 | 16851 | ||
| I Was Just Following Orders [72 words] | Jim J | Sep 8, 2004 23:54 | 16850 | ||
| Let's be fair [23 words] | Alan Rutkowski | Sep 8, 2004 21:28 | 16849 | ||
| Right on target! [11 words] | Robert Gelber | Sep 8, 2004 21:12 | 16848 | ||
| Leftist Media [98 words] | Samuel Karpov | Sep 8, 2004 20:55 | 16847 | ||
| 'Militant' now means 'terrorist' [90 words] | Howard Pielet | Sep 8, 2004 20:13 | 16846 | ||
| Terrorists [2 words] | Walter D'Ull | Sep 8, 2004 19:46 | 16845 | ||
| My Favorite Term [6 words] | Katie | Sep 8, 2004 19:22 | 16844 | ||
| Chechyna [154 words] | Harrison | Sep 8, 2004 18:58 | 16843 | ||
| A Terrorist By Any Other Name... [113 words] | Sheldon Taft | Sep 8, 2004 17:47 | 16840 | ||
| Semantics are not important [70 words] | paulina | Sep 8, 2004 17:32 | 16839 | ||
| Civilization at Risk [544 words] | Jim Stoll | Sep 8, 2004 17:23 | 16838 | ||
| proper definitions [362 words] | Nick | Sep 8, 2004 17:22 | 16837 | ||
| No sympathy for terrorists [43 words] | Dick Short | Sep 8, 2004 16:47 | 16836 | ||
| It's "Gang" on Radio New Zealand [49 words] | Josh Duthie | Sep 8, 2004 16:42 | 16835 | ||
| Terror is graphic [34 words] | Tom Perrin | Sep 8, 2004 16:31 | 16834 | ||
| Strategic bombing [92 words] | Konrad | Sep 8, 2004 16:30 | 16833 | ||
| On the use of language [62 words] | Paul E Price | Sep 8, 2004 16:29 | 16832 | ||
| If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it is a mallard [69 words] | Raghu Desikan | Sep 8, 2004 15:39 | 16830 | ||
| Flawed Reasoning [88 words] | Justin Lannoye | Sep 8, 2004 15:26 | 16829 | ||
| "Commentaries,yours." [111 words] | Mr. Sandy Haaz | Sep 8, 2004 15:17 | 16828 | ||
| They're Terrorists- Not activists [216 words] | Ken Kinrich | Sep 8, 2004 15:14 | 16827 | ||
| They cannot sanitize this [143 words] | Martin Kalaydjian | Sep 8, 2004 14:39 | 16826 | ||
| George Washington, Terrorist [146 words] | Scott Ryan | Sep 8, 2004 14:25 | 16825 | ||
| Defining terrorism [110 words] | Bjorn Merker | Sep 8, 2004 14:18 | 16824 | ||
| 1 | Reporting vs. storytelling [270 words] | Rick Darby | Sep 8, 2004 13:59 | 16823 | |
| Tyranny - wherever - is still tyranny. [220 words] | Texposé | Sep 8, 2004 13:51 | 16822 | ||
| Obfuscation [38 words] | John Maloney | Sep 8, 2004 13:38 | 16820 | ||
| Calling a Spade a Black Upside-Down Heart With a Tail [120 words] | Marci Mays | Sep 8, 2004 13:36 | 16819 | |
| Is "Terrorist" really just a description? [142 words] | Arti Persaud | Sep 8, 2004 13:30 | 16818 | ||
| Terrorism = non-financial impersonal mayhem upon civilians [361 words] | Jason Jungreis | Sep 8, 2004 13:11 | 16816 | ||
| Re comment: "Who Gets To Choose?" [32 words] | Rob Arsenault | Sep 8, 2004 12:56 | 16815 | ||
| K. I. S. S. ITS ABOUT "WORDS" [91 words] | Bob Breslauer | Sep 8, 2004 12:46 | 16814 | ||
| The Terrorism Scale [253 words] | David Guy | Sep 8, 2004 12:40 | 16812 | |
| What's the complaint?? [22 words] | Judy Stein | Sep 8, 2004 12:23 | 16811 | ||
| Its murder, even if the motive is political. [110 words] | Lawrence M. Dubin | Sep 8, 2004 11:57 | 16810 | ||
| Finally! [20 words] | Zachary Carlin | Sep 8, 2004 11:54 | 16809 | ||
| What is Terrorism [113 words] | rhona hotchkiss | Sep 8, 2004 11:31 | 16808 | ||
| The real enemy [43 words] | Ross Cox | Sep 8, 2004 10:50 | 16805 | ||
| Amen! [98 words] | Jasonn | Sep 8, 2004 10:33 | 16804 | ||
| Another term [11 words] | William Papke | Sep 8, 2004 10:32 | 16803 | ||
| But almost every article also uses TERRORIST [151 words] | Brian Houston | Sep 8, 2004 10:32 | 16802 | ||
| Political Correctness and the war on Terror [240 words] | Rick Moran | Sep 8, 2004 10:02 | 16801 | ||
| Who gets to choose? [76 words] | Robert Day | Sep 8, 2004 09:53 | 16799 | ||
| Desperados? [42 words] | Aubie Arrow | Sep 8, 2004 09:48 | 16798 | ||
| Call them Mujihadeen instead of terrorists [124 words] | Dennis | Sep 8, 2004 09:16 | 16796 | ||
| Terrorists and "freedom fighters" [303 words] | Tom Martin | Sep 8, 2004 09:14 | 16795 | ||
| EMET [36 words] | Esther Elbaz | Sep 8, 2004 09:10 | 16794 | ||
| This misses the point [166 words] | Rich Taylor | Sep 8, 2004 07:00 | 16790 | ||
| TERRORIST AS SOCIAL TORTURERS [131 words] | Alan Roberts | Sep 8, 2004 06:53 | 16789 | ||
| Terrorists or freedom fighters? [129 words] | Sue Vogel | Sep 8, 2004 05:46 | 16787 | ||
| Once again careful documentation and proof of a reality so many sense [159 words] | Shalom Freedman | Sep 8, 2004 05:07 | 16784 | ||
| Call them murderers [37 words] | Ramesh Raghuvanshi | Sep 8, 2004 04:07 | 16781 | ||
| Thank You [16 words] | Jack Wynn | Sep 8, 2004 03:51 | 16778 | ||
| Terrorists, bandits, assassins, criminals [79 words] | Octavio Johanson | Sep 8, 2004 03:48 | 16777 | ||
| One man's freedom fighter, Is another man's terrorist. [104 words] | Charles Edward Frith | Sep 8, 2004 03:11 | 16775 | ||
| A Spade's a spade - dig? [132 words] | Tony Mora | Sep 8, 2004 03:03 | 16774 | ||
| Euphemisms for terrorist [129 words] | Melvyn Rosenstein | Sep 8, 2004 02:57 | 16773 | ||
| A Miasma of Words [104 words] | Jon Miller | Sep 8, 2004 02:35 | 16772 | ||
 Oh fercryin' out loud! [86 words] | Anonymous Coward | Sep 8, 2004 01:58 | 16771 | ||
| A term more destructive than terrorist [228 words] | Gilbert Simons | Sep 8, 2004 00:45 | 16770 | ||
| A Word With Ways [85 words] | Lisa Nyberg | Sep 8, 2004 00:06 | 16769 | ||
| NY Times Guilty on 9/1/04 [104 words] | Reena Seltzer | Sep 7, 2004 23:34 | 16768 | ||
| More euphemisms [48 words] | Harry Barton | Sep 7, 2004 23:11 | 16766 | ||
| Jihadists [69 words] | Tim Roberts | Sep 7, 2004 22:53 | 16765 | ||
| Misnomers [33 words] | Malia Taylor | Sep 7, 2004 21:41 | 16763 | ||
| Canada's coverage: how do you know? [464 words] | Greg Hannigan | Sep 7, 2004 21:29 | 16762 | ||
| Even the UN used the word "terrorist" [41 words] | CHINGCHING | Sep 7, 2004 21:20 | 16761 | ||
| Euphemisms in France [20 words] | Tzvi Tamari | Sep 7, 2004 21:02 | 16760 | ||
| Excellent Article [20 words] | Bob Ruggill | Sep 7, 2004 21:01 | 16759 | ||
| Selective sensitivity [128 words] | Paul M. | Sep 7, 2004 20:15 | 16757 | ||
| Euphemisms and action [201 words] | Dr. Bill Hayes | Sep 7, 2004 19:54 | 16755 | ||
| Euphemisms are for the Morally and Intellectually Braindead [102 words] | Jeremy Dan Freedman | Sep 7, 2004 19:39 | 16754 | ||
| Terrorism [70 words] | S Fineman | Sep 7, 2004 19:27 | 16753 | ||
| terrorist euphemisms [25 words] | Bruce Kauffman | Sep 7, 2004 19:01 | 16751 | ||
| Mainstream Press Bias [185 words] | Michael Levine | Sep 7, 2004 18:59 | 16750 | ||
| 1 | The meaning of "Terrorism" [105 words] | Alan Green | Sep 7, 2004 18:49 | 16749 | |
| Ah, so [86 words] | Gary Greer | Sep 7, 2004 18:38 | 16748 | ||
| Another One [7 words] | Greg | Sep 7, 2004 18:36 | 16747 | ||
| Definition of terrorism [40 words] | Brian Anderson | Sep 7, 2004 18:28 | 16746 | ||
| Euphemisms for terrorist [139 words] | Bob Alexander | Sep 7, 2004 17:29 | 16745 | ||
| Semantics - execution and assassination [214 words] | Peter Samuel | Sep 7, 2004 17:19 | 16744 | ||
| Language usage determines the way we think [86 words] | Bernard Kesten | Sep 7, 2004 16:57 | 16741 | ||
| The Right Word Is Important [46 words] | Patrick Barron | Sep 7, 2004 16:40 | 16739 | ||
| The BBC sinks to a new low [36 words] | Shedon Schorer | Sep 7, 2004 16:28 | 16738 | ||
| Definition of terrorist [45 words] | Nathaniel Barr | Sep 7, 2004 16:09 | 16736 | ||
| Not only weakness, but sheer stupidity [23 words] | George Plescov | Sep 7, 2004 16:08 | 16735 | ||
| Another home run [27 words] | Frank Magnani | Sep 7, 2004 16:04 | 16734 | ||
| Militants and Terrorists [298 words] | David Harris | Sep 7, 2004 15:31 | 16732 | ||
| Job well done [153 words] | John W. McGinley | Sep 7, 2004 15:14 | 16730 | ||
| "Terrorists" [99 words] | Walter Rogoff | Sep 7, 2004 14:52 | 16727 | ||
| getting real! [23 words] | M. Martin | Sep 7, 2004 14:39 | 16726 | ||
| Euphemisms: a humdinger [68 words] | Allan Grant | Sep 7, 2004 14:20 | 16724 | ||
| Call them what they are. [16 words] | Allan Grafman | Sep 7, 2004 14:09 | 16723 | ||
| Let's be a little more specific... [43 words] | Tobias Moyer | Sep 7, 2004 13:54 | 16722 | ||
| Baffled! [266 words] | Bryan Taplits | Sep 7, 2004 13:35 | 16721 | ||
| Failure to call a duck a duck [244 words] | Donald W. Bales | Sep 7, 2004 13:30 | 16720 | ||
| What's in a word? [45 words] | Michael Elvin | Sep 7, 2004 13:29 | 16719 | ||
| They're Terrorist Not Activists [87 words] | Lisa MIchelson | Sep 7, 2004 13:29 | 16718 | ||
| Down with synonyms [138 words] | Michael Elvin | Sep 7, 2004 13:22 | 16717 | ||
| Call things as they are [281 words] | Jean Ouellette | Sep 7, 2004 13:21 | 16716 | ||
| Correction of term [43 words] | Marsha Livson | Sep 7, 2004 13:18 | 16715 | ||
| Even "terrorist" is a euphumism -- they're "Muslim aggressors" [202 words] | Maureen Cote | Sep 7, 2004 13:12 | 16714 | ||
| IDF demolishes house of militant who carried out terror attack near Itamar [175 words] | Mladen Andrijasevic | Sep 7, 2004 13:11 | 16713 | ||
| We're fighting Islamists, not terrorism!! [156 words] | Commander Roger Johnson | Sep 7, 2004 13:08 | 16712 | ||
| Islamist terrorists by any other name is wrong. [40 words] | bob fink | Sep 7, 2004 13:04 | 16711 | ||
| Terrorists~~not activists [26 words] | R.Wilson | Sep 7, 2004 12:54 | 16710 | ||
| The t word; the M word [35 words] | Ethel C. Fenig | Sep 7, 2004 12:35 | 16709 | ||
| Definition of terror [34 words] | Yirmeyahu Ben-David, Paqid 16, The Netzarim | Sep 7, 2004 12:07 | 16708 |
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