Should We Waterboard the Domestic Terrorist Who Shot Dr. Tiller? | 83 comments (83 topical, 0 hidden)
What then makes... (4.25 / 3)
...a terrorist a terrorist, Atraindust?  Islamists who plant a bomb in an American building are doing so under the belief that Americans, by their infidelity to Allah, are guilty of a capital offense.  They believe that they are purifying the world in Allah's blessed name, and that this is an act of great morality in an evil society.  Tim McVeigh believed that he was helping to crush the spirit of the evil oppressive federal government, and thus he believed what he was doing was moral and that his targets had great crimes they needed to be forcibly punished for.  Why are they regarded as terrorists and a person who assassinates an abortion doctor or blows up an abortion clinic classifable as otherwise?  Is the only difference that you personally find abortion so abhorrant that the doctors "kinda deserve what is coming to them" but you don't see that Islamist terrorists feel the same way about Jews and Christians?  Nobody (almost nobody, a few Satanists or sociopaths, maybe) actually believes that what they are doing is evil.  Dr. Tiller didn't, his murderer didn't, Saddan Hussein didn't.  It is folly to let your personal feelings about an issue substitute for how a label should be used by everyone.

by Milltycoon on 06/03/2009 03:00:44 AM EST

Well (2.67 / 2)
 first of all the term terrorist seems like the most over used term in our society. Second I dont even want to use the stupid term because it is a word that has no clear definition that everyone can agree on. If you tried to google it or wikipedia it they would give you ten different answers or say well we cant get a clear defintion of what is terrorism and what isnt. And I say that you cant say that this guy is a terrorist right away unless you have evidence that the only reason he did it was for a terror(fear) inducing result. Maybe that is why he did it. But he might also have done it because he couldnt stand that the guy was doing something immoral and he thought he deserved to die. Like if an Islamic person kills George Bush maybe its terrorism but maybe he just killed him because he thinks for him killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and torturing others that he just deserves to die. I wouldnt jump to call the guy a terrorist you probably would. I say its terrorism when the only intent is to cause terror. Revenge and murder is sometimes just that. If it strikes terror into others that might be a secondary effect.

by atraindust on 06/03/2009 10:44:15 AM EST

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Should We Waterboard the Domestic Terrorist Who Shot Dr. Tiller? | 83 comments (83 topical, 0 hidden)