Exploding the 'terrorist' neuron bomb

[tocqueville]

By Ian Williams

What do Nelson Mandela, Michael Collins, Archbishop Makarios, Menachim Begin, Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Shamir, Eamon DeValera and Jomo Kenyatta have in common, apart from having being heads of state?

As everybody knows, but few remember, they were all vilified as "terrorists" by the British or American authorities.

Ronald Reagan branded Mandela's African National Congress a terrorist organization - and to be fair, it did commit some terrorist acts, while the ancestors of Likud blew up the King David Hotel, assassinated the highest British official in the Middle East during the war against the Nazis, and gunned down United Nations representative Count Folke Bernadotte for trying to negotiate a peace settlement.

I have been on several Fox and MSNBC shows recently where the hosts admitted that Israel is failing in Lebanon, and that it was a mistake to begin the invasion, not least because there is no exit strategy. But then they will round on me because I will not describe Hezbollah as "terrorist". In fact I use the same formula that British diplomats (in the better days of a more independent foreign policy) used: "A group that sometimes commits terrorist acts." Needless to say, this does not satisfy pro-Israeli anchormen - in fact, it gives them an excuse to grandstand their fury.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HH17Ak03.html

very interesting article that says long on Bush's "war on terror"....

[OwnedByFerrets]

1. This may be out of context to your post....

but it reminded me of the statement "One man terrorist is another mans freedom fighter".

[knowbody0]

2. "terrorist" is the new "communist"

the EVIL enemy of our "freedom"

Chavez is a communist terrorist, right?

[enigma000]

3. and we all know communists never intended us harm n/t

[elehhhhna]

5. WOW! Liberal is the new Communist, too! Neocoms, anyone? LOL

[civildisoBDence]

4. Terrorists and errorists

Sometimes violence may be justified, and it's sure as hell effective. Our own founding fathers were terrorists to the Brits. I guess terrorism is in the eye of the beholder.

Thoreau, Ghandi and King all used what could be called "errorism"--using passive resistance to point out the moral errors of a policy (the Mexican War), colonialist (the British Empire), or society (mid-20th Century America) respectively.

Thoreau refused to pay a tax to protest the Mexican War, spent a night in jail, then wrote "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience", which inspired Ghandi and King in their non-violent struggles.

I'm more and more inclined to withhold by support--my income taxes--from the Bush regime. I don't want to be in any way complicit in what this criminal cabal is doing around the world or here at home.

Death to tyrants.

S-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g the truth, so you get more

[catnhatnh]

6. Nice post

....and welcome,we definitely need your type here.