Sun Feb 3 18:21:43 PST 2008 Bhandare wrote in a post titled "Gandhi": > Who is a terrorist depends on whose version you want to hear. A democratically elected Prezident Bush is widely regarded as a "terrorist" for a large section of the muslim world. On the other hand Osama is hailed as a "revolutionary hero" and a "lion of resistance" The same is true for every other revolutionary or terrorist. > Mario responds: > I must disagree with my friend Bhandare that a terrorist is in the eye of the beholder. This is a dismissive popular sophistry that does not stand up to closer scrutiny. > In my opinion, a terrorist is someone who deliberately TARGETS innocent civilians with threats and/or harm or death in order to terrorize them and achieve a political objective. > The key words above are "deliberately TARGETS". > For example, during WW-II both sides engaged in blatant terrorism by deliberately targeting innocent civilians. > If the jihadis on 9/11 had restricted themselves to attacking the Pentagon with airplanes without deliberately using innocent civilians as pawns I would not consider them terrorists. > The Turkish forces currently attacking armed and hostile Kurdish rebels are not terrorists. When Hamas and Hezbollah attack Israeli defense forces they are not acting as terrorists - when they attack Israeli civilians with rockets aimed at their residential neighborhhods, they are acting as terrorists. > Menachem Begin was a terrorist leader prior to 1947 and later became Prime Minister of Israel. Yasser Arafat was clearly a terrorist most of his career by ordering and supporting attacks aimed at Israeli civilians. > I would argue that President Bush is falsely considered a "terrorist" by a small section of the Muslim world to divert attention from the actual terrorists they may sympathize with. Many of the 80% of Iraqis who are Shia or Kurds would not call him a terrorist because he was instrumental in deposing the dictator who was actually terrorizing them. Law abiding Afghans would not consider him a terrorist. Besides, American troops are investigated and severely punished if they are found to have deliberately targeted civilians. > Most Indonesian Muslims would not consider Bush a terrorist after the tsunami relief provided by the USA, nor would Muslim Albanians or Kosovans who credit him a hero of their struggle for independence from Serbian brutality and terrorism, and the Serbs are supposed to be Christians. > While some Muslim radicals may see Osama as a revolutionary I doubt most Muslims would agree. By committing "haram" by openly and deliberately targeting innocent civilians in Muslim and non-Muslims countries he is considered by most regular Muslims as an Islamic heretic. Besides, most of the victims of his terrorist actions have been Muslims >
