Good question...
…from Col Pat Lang.
Does the Times now believe that armed resistance to a government, any government is by definition "terrorism?"And furthermore...
By that standard was George Washington a terrorist? Were the Machabees terrorists? How about Simon Bolivar, was he a terrorist? Was Emilio Aguinaldo a terrorist?Are the Baluchis? Really?
That's not rhetorical. I'm about as non-authoritative about Iranian political and religious factions as you'll find. It's not hard to imagine that a group that's a religious, cultural, geographic and language minority has a legitimate grievance or two with an authoritarian fundamentalist regime.
Of course, there's a counter-argument to be made along the lines of "So what?" Sure, insurgents and revolutionaries use terror. What else, in many cases, do they have? Terror is, by these terms, simply a tactic, to be used for good or ill, and shouldn't be considered a pejorative at all absent context. I confess that I'm pretty sympathetic to this notion.
Yep, good question. Got me thinkin'...
Labels: Baluch, Good Question, Iran, Terrorism
posted by Shaun at
2:27 AM
1 Comments:
I'll set myself up for some verbal "blow-back" here and say that Congressman Paul was the only presidential candidate to seemingly grasp the fact that terrorism, as a tactic, grew out of the fact that we have our military people in countries; where the people don't want us - as opposed to certain despotic regimes.
As the congressman said in a GOP debate in South Carolina, "We need to look at what we do, from the perspective of what we would do, if someone did it to us.
"I believe very seriously that the CIA is correct when they talk about 'blowback.'
"They (the terrorists) don't come here to attack us because we're rich and free; but because we're over there."
Nonetheless, the other candidates in the so-called Grand Old Party kept parroting the same tired cliches about foreign policy; and that, along with the downfall of Lehman Brothers (and ensuing events) ensured the election of President Obama.
Now, if only the president comes to understand the wisdom of deciding to leave countries, where the people see us as occupiers and our troops as occupation forces.
It might also help if we - all of us - finally and completely not only started using less petroleum-based products (since we use so much for our cars and trucks), but also allowed our engineers to continue to develop alternative means of powering our vehicles.
But then, that's grist for another post.
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