September 19, 2007

Terrorism defined

Apropos of my 9/11 posting:ter·ror·ism (těr'ə-rĭz'əm)
n. The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.
According to my moral code, the greater the number of innocent people killed, the worse the terrorist act. By that definition, the worst terrorist act in history was the US bombing of Hiroshima.

2 comments:

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
Hiroshima? And not Nagasaki? What about the covert use of nuclear weapons over Cambodia during the Viet Nam War? writerfella knows about that one because he was a missile technician in the USAF and two air-to-air nuclear missiles used on the F-111 are missing, for which no account ever has been made. The cover-up? A 'secret' CIA base had a small nuclear power source, which was self-destructed to prevent its capture when the base was overrun. Sure, sure!
And writerfella guesses we won't be counting EuroMan's 500-years of terror and assault on the indigenous peoples of both North and South America, while he basks in the technological society he so proudly set up for himself and his children...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'

Rob said...

In this context, I'm counting Hiroshima and Nagasaki as two separate acts. I think they killed roughly the same number of people, but I mentioned Hiroshima because it's more (in)famous.

I hinted at the long history of terrorism against Native Americans in my 9/11 posting, of course. But I'd count that as many acts, not one act. The worst single act of terrorism against Natives is probably Wounded Knee or Sand Creek.