Another problem with the word "terrorism" is that the number of cases that are really clear-cut and unarguable is not so great. The extreme cases that most people here are giving as examples are not really representative.
I guess most of us will agree that deliberately blowing up a bus full of schoolkids is terrorism. What about a bus full of uniformed soldiers? (I heard some of you ask "ours or theirs?"; shame on you :-) What about a bus full of uniformed soldiers except for one schoolkid? Or a bus full of schoolkids except for one armed soldier (who isn't there just to protect the schoolkids)? What about a 50-50 mix?
Does anyone here have a mathematical formula describing where the border between terrorism or not lies? This is not a concocted example. Anyone who rides busses in Israel knows that there are often uniformed (and even armed) soldiers taking the bus from one place to another. Or, from the other side, Israeli assassinations done from the air kill on average about the same number of bystanders as intended victims.
Why can't we just say "blew up a bus with 20 civilians and 5 soldiers"? What information are we hiding if we leave out the "t" word? Aren't we actually insulting our readers when we don't allow them to choose their own moral responses?
Zero.
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