From: VirgilT7@aol.com
Date: Fri Jul 03 1998 - 20:40:29 MDT
In a message dated 7/3/98 8:43:51 PM Eastern Daylight Time, rrandall6@juno.com
writes:
<< No problem. :) It's just that you don't yet realize
that the only difference, objectively, is the name,
and who likes them.
>>
I'd say the differences between what and how and why they're fighting are
fairly important too.
HOW:
Freedom fighters, guerillas, survive only with the support of the population
in the area that they are fighting. They attack by and large military and not
civilian targets. Terrorist groups, which can refer to just about any
irregular fighting unit if we're going to be incredibly loose here, often and
purposely attack civilian targets, aim to make the population in which they
act scared stiff (as opposed to sympathetic to), and must work in opposition
to both populace and authorities.
WHAT and WHY:
And even if we're STILL going to stay that there is no difference really
between terrorist groups and freedom fighters, I'd say that the differences
between the justifications for each group are rather deeply important. There
can be terrorist groups struggling to instate a dictator as easily as their
can be groups struggling to remove one. And that difference is an objective
and important one. This means that it is simply wrong, as Mark did, to simply
paint all terrorists with the same rationalistic brush and pretend that to
study them in order to destroy some of them is the mark of an oppressor.
Andrew
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