[WikiEN-l] terrorism

[zero 0000]

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.

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Finance: Get your refund fast by filing online.
http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html