A freedom fighter is a terrorist on your side. A terrorist is a freedom fighter on the other side.

Terrorism: Theirs and Ours

The matter of terrorism is rather complicated. Terrorists change. The terrorist of yesterday is the hero of today, and the hero of yesterday

Becomes the terrorist of today. This is a serious matter of the constantly changing world of images in which we have to keep our heads straight to know what is terrorism and what is not. But more importantly, to know what causes it, and how to stop it.

By 1942, the #Holocaust was occurring, and a certain liberal sympathy with the #Jewish people had built up in the Western world. At that point, the terrorists of Palestine, who were #Zionists, suddenly started to be described, by 1944-45, as 'freedom fighters.

At least two Israeli Prime Ministers, including Menachem Begin, have actually, posters with their pictures, saying 'Terrorists, Reward This Much.' The highest reward I have noted so far was 100,000 British pounds on the head of Menachem Begin, the terrorist

Then from 1969 to 1990 the #PLO, occupied the center stage as the terrorist organization. Yasir Arafat has been described repeatedly by the great sage of American journalism, William Safire of the New York Times, as the 'Chief of Terrorism.' That's Yasir Arafat.

Now, on September 29, 1998, Yasir Arafat to the right of President Bill Clinton. To his left is Israeli PM Netanyahu.Just a few years earlier he used to appear with this very menacing look around him, with a gun appearing menacing from his belt.

In 1985, President Reagan received a group of bearded men with turbans in the White House. After receiving them he said These are the moral equivalent of America's founding fathers'. These were the "Afghan Mujahiddin ". They were at the time, battling the Evil Empire . "USSR"

In August 1998, another American President ordered missile strikes from the American navy based in the Indian Ocean to kill Osama Bin Laden and his men in the camps in Afghanistan.

only a few years ago they were moral equivalent of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson .

The point about terrorism is that posture of inconsistency necessarily evades definition. If you are not going to be consistent, you're not going to define. All of them explain it, express it emotively, polemically, to arouse our emotions rather than exercise our intelligence

They don't define because definitions involve a commitment to analysis, comprehension & adherence to some norms of consistency.

History unfortunately recognizes& accords visibility to power & not to weakness.Therefore,visibility has been accorded historically to dominant groups

Great civilizations have been wiped out. The Mayas, the Incas, the Aztecs, the American Indians, the Canadian Indians were all wiped out. Their voices have not been heard, even to this day fully. Now they are beginning to be heard, but not fully. They are heard, yes, but only

when the dominant power suffers, only when resistance has a semblance of costing, of exacting a price. When a Custer is killed or when a Gordon is besieged. That's when you know that they were Indians fighting, Arabs fighting and dying

US policy in the Cold War period has sponsored terrorist regimes one after another. Somoza, Batista, all kinds of tyrants have been America's friends. There was a reason for that. You or I are not guilty. Nicaragua, contra. Afghanistan, Mujahiddin. El Salvador, etc

Types of terrorism-

1)State terrorism
2)Religious terrorism
3)crime Terrorism
4)Mafia Terrorism
5)political terror of the private group

State terror can take the form of private terror. For example,the death squads in Latin America or in Pakistan. Govt has employed private

people to kill its opponents. It's not quite official. It's privatized. Convergence. Or the political terrorist that goes crazy and becomes pathological.
In Afghanistan,Central America,CIA employed in its covert operations drug pushers. Drugs and guns often go together.

The highest cost is state terror.

The second highest cost is religious terror, although religious terror has, declined.
The next highest cost is crime. Next highest is Mafia.

Political Terror of those who want to be heard there cost is least in terms of human lives

The focus is on only one political terrorist.
Why do they do it? What makes the terrorist tick?

The need to get your grievances heard by people.Imagine we are dealing with a minority group, the political, private terrorist.They're not hearing it.A minority acts.majority applauds

The Palestinians, for exmpl, the superterrorists of our time, were dispossessed in 1948. From 1948 to 1968 they went to every court in the world. They knocked at every door in the world. They were told that they became dispossessed ,Nobody was listening to the truth

Finally, they invented a new form of terror, literally their invention: the airplane hijacking. Between 1968 and 1975 they pulled the world up by its ears. They dragged us out and said, Listen, Listen. We listened. We still haven't done them justice, but at least we all know.

Even the Israelis acknowledge. Golda Meir, PM of Israel, saying in 1970, said 'There are no Palestinians.' They do not exist. They damn well exist now. US cheated them at Oslo. We can't just push them out. The need to be heard is essential.

Mix of anger and helplessness produces an urge to strike out. You are angry. You are feeling helpless. You want retribution. You want to wreak retributive justice. The experience of violence by a stronger party has historically turned victims into terrorists. Battered children

are known to become abusive parents and violent adults. You know that. That's what happens to peoples and nations. When they are battered, they hit back. State terror very often breeds collective terror

Extremes of double standards. If you're going to practice double standards, you will be paid with double standards. Don't condone Israeli terror, then complain about Afghan terror or Palestinian terror. It doesn't work. It won't work in this shrunken world.

https://www.tni.org/my/node/13434