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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 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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