No one seems to be able to agree on what "terrorism" actually means. Everyone seems to be careful when coming up with a definition because they want to avoid classifying certain other, often justifiable events as terrorist behaviour, or they want to avoid making certain events appear evil to public eyes even when they may very well be. Certain laws may be drafted in such a way as to class one type of crime as a simple crime, but another type as a terrorist act, and even these have much debate surrounding them.

In this thread, I would like to discuss what you understand from the words "terrorism" and "terrorist".

When I look at a word, I look to the word itself rather than a dictionary to find out its meaning if I haven't got a dictionary on-hand, and if the word itself gives no indication as to what it might mean, then that's when I look to a dictionary to find out.

If we think of terrorism as a tactic, then clearly terrorism must surely mean the incitement of fear in order to achieve a goal, usually with political or religious motives. Achieving a goal is, after all, the primary use of a tactic.

If I use this definition, then 9/11 was still a terrorist attack, as was the 7/7 bombing. They were committed by Islamic fundamentalists who wanted to cause fear. This would almost certainly be a religious motive.

But, under this definition, then Hiroshima and Nagasaki were also terrorist attacks. I'd say "winning a war" is a political motive, and using a nuclear bomb on these cities was solely for the purpose of inciting such fear in the Japanese government that they would see that there was no point in continuing to fight. It wasn't a case of stopping the people in those cities from attacking, as those cities most likely weren't an immediate danger, but it was just an example of what would be done to Japan if they didn't surrender. I don't intend to discuss whether or not the nukes should've been used, I'm simply saying that, under my above definition, these bombings would also be classed as terrorist attacks.

Discuss, and put forward your own ideas if you disagree.

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