What is Terrorism?

How do we determine what action is considered terroristic. I think most of us agree that the people that crashed the planes into the WTC and the Pentagon were terrorist. Are the people that drove them to the airport terrorist? The people that knowingly harbored and trained them? The people that hamper or block the investigation? Are these people terrorist?

At what point down the chain though is an action not terroristic, but the freedom of expression?

If these men had commandeered these planes and crashed them with no one aboard, in the night with no loss of life but with the same property damage, would they still be terrorist?

If instead of crashing the planes, they used them to drop some vile chemicals on NYC that did no property damage, but disrupted the business of the city for an extended period, would they be terrorist?

If we are going to stamp out terrorism we have to identify exactly what it is, and pass stringent laws against it. We should draft new penalties for people convicted of terrorism.

I think that any act of terrorism that takes a life should automatically without exception get the death penalty. All other acts of terrorism should receive treble the normal penalty for a criminal act.

What is considered terrorism?

IMO a terroristic act is when someone for philosophical reasons engages in, participates in, supports, or has intimate knowledge of, any act that damages, disrupts or harms, any individual, business, legal process or enterprise.

For example, If a man goes to an abortion clinic and shoots a doctor because his 17-year-old daughter had an abortion there without his permission, he is a criminal.
If a man goes to an abortion clinic and shoots a doctor because he doesn't believe in abortions, he is a terrorist.

This is my opinion; I would be interested in hearing others.

Terorism, by definition, is coersion (sp?), usually at the threat of or during the commision of a violent act, to promote some idyillc (usually political) cause. In the past, such acts had some "rules", such as the perpertrator usually had a name attached, for which the committing party were only too happy to give. What makes this episode so sickeningly different is that no one has anted up to staging this little foray. Which leaves America in the unenviable position of searching for or even creating an ememy to respond to, rather than retaliating to a claimant.

Where you draw the line between terrorism and freedom of expression, as you put it, is whether both parties are involved in adiscussion or action, and respect each other's views.

These people didn't knock on the White House door and say listen George, at 9:00 am tomorrow morning I'm going to throw a couple of jumbo jets at some of your culture's most treasured icons. Any problems with that?

That didn't happen, there was no input, no response, no consultation...not even a warning. No this was not even terrorism, for terrorists associate themselves with a cause, and broadcast it during the commitment of their acts as part of their demands.

What we have in this case is barbaristic cowardice, in possibly the cruelest form humanity has yet seen. And it is done so with purpose, I think...with the purpose of counting on America's abundant pride and reactionary outrage to stage a war against assumed parties, while the real purportrators may sit back and watch, possibly laughing all the way to the bank. America's real trouble right now is just how do you fight this sickness?

Terry Waite, the British cleric who spent a number of years in captivity in Lebanon, once stated that "The terrible thing about terrorism is that ultimately it destroys those who practise it. Slowly but surely, as they try to extinguish life in others, the light within them dies."

The problem for America is, how long can it afford to wait, how many more hits can it take, while waiting for those consumed with hatred to consume themselves?

Jamie

In my book, Terrorists are the Master Minds, the people who pulled it off, and the people who protect the people the Master Minds and the people who pull it off. Anyone else won't really be a terrorist because these people would be the only ones to really know about it.

[URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/GIS.Servlets.HTMLTemplate?tf=tgam/columnists/FullColumn.html&cf=tgam/columnists/FullColumn.cfg&configFileLoc=tgam/config&date=&dateOffse t=&hub=rexMurphy&title=Rex_Murphy&cache_key=rexMurphy¤t_row=2&start_row=2&num_rows=1]Terrorism[/URL]

Says it better than I ever could.

Jamie