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A comment on America in grave danger from terrorists? The numbers tell a different story. Parent comment

Re:America in grave danger from terrorists? The numbers tell... by pmoriarty on Sunday November 05, 2017 @06:00PM (#15632282)
The definition of terrorism is a very slippery and politically charged one.

The US military has killed orders of magnitude more people for political reasons (such as getting rid of Saddam Hussein, "liberating" various countries, preventing the spread of Communism, or "bringing democracy") than all the acts traditionally designated as "terrorism" put together. Does that make the US military a terrorist organization?

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Re:America in grave danger from terrorists? The numbers tell... by Thriptic on Sunday November 05, 2017 @07:42PM (#15632750)
No because they're a nation state. Terrorism is when a non state actor attacks civilian targets for political reasons.

A nation state attacking civilians in another country is either war or a police action depending on context.

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Re:America in grave danger from terrorists? The numbers tell... by pmoriarty on Sunday November 05, 2017 @08:44PM (#15632969)
"A nation state attacking civilians in another country is either war or a police action depending on context."

So the same action is called by different names depending on who does it? Quite the double standard.

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Re:America in grave danger from terrorists? The numbers tell... by Thriptic on Sunday November 05, 2017 @09:10PM (#15633051)
> So the same action is called by different names depending on who does it?

Exactly. "Terrorism" is just a label to describe the parties involved, not a value judgement. A death is a death whether it's from guerilla warfare, a mass shooting, terrorism, an accident, or a full scale war.

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Re:America in grave danger from terrorists? The numbers tell... by pmoriarty on Sunday November 05, 2017 @09:13PM (#15633056)
Well, if "terrorism" is just a label, then it shouldn't matter if war is labeled terrorism on a larger scale.
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Re:America in grave danger from terrorists? The numbers tell... by Thriptic on Sunday November 05, 2017 @09:22PM (#15633091)
I don't see what you gain by doing so other than producing more emotion which isn't particularly helpful. We already have way too much emotion surrounding this word. A nebulous definition makes the problem of terrorism harder to bound and develop strategies to deal with.
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Re:America in grave danger from terrorists? The numbers tell... by maxerickson on Sunday November 05, 2017 @06:07PM (#15632326)
Might makes right.
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