In every one of us lies a little anarchist, a little rebel. We are rebelling against simple things or against complex ones. We are rebelling against injustice and pain- or just against an ugly boss.
When stops the inner rebellion and starts the terrorism? What is the boundary between freedom fighters and terrorists? This is actually a very difficult question.
To be honest, this thin distinction is made by the winners, by those against we fight. Almost every terrorist label is given by the enemy. What could describe a terrorist? The terror as a goal? Here we could identify just a few names- mostly radical Muslims as Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. Many so called terrorist are considering their actions as normal ones. Of course that a bomb is a bomb. But they are announcing such kinds of acts early in the idea that peoples could put themselves out of danger. Are IRA terrorists? Rather not. Or the British government is dealing with terrorists. Are ETA terrorists? Rather not. The new Spanish government will cut a deal with ETA.
The murder of innocent people? But many legal governments are killing innocent peoples. To name some- Turkey- an OTAN member and would be European Union member is killing viciously its Kurdish population. Indonesia- a much respected USA ally was also killing freely the East Timor population. Burma is killing Karens. And they are not terrorist. And USA who killed a lot of innocent people in Iraq is sure not a terrorist state.
Actually, in the XX century war was connected with terror. Starting with the First World War in which the Germans were accused of terrorizing innocent civilians. Also the Second World War. Also Corea and Vietnam. War means murder and blood and gore. But war is generally taking part outside the cities- outside the normal life, on the battlefields.
Terrorists were bringing the war inside the city. No one is excepted, no one is safe. We could be all targets. This is the general idea and it could be true. But, the problem is that, somehow, in some ways, the targets of terror are seen by the terrorists as guilty. They are not seeing innocent peoples in Madrid but killers of Iraqi people. They are not seeing innocents anywhere.
Here, I think that is a huge gap between our culture and their culture. We are considering ourselves as individuals. They are taking us as a group of Americans, of Britons, of Spaniards. If we could establish the difference between the innocent American and the American soldier in Iraq perhaps we could win the war against terror. If we could establish the difference between innocence and opression perhaps we could win this war. I don’t think that the Muslim religion is not making a distinction between individual and mass. And I don’t think that Muslim religion could condemn innocents for the guilty of a few. Let the wars be developed between soldiers and not between innocent people. In this sense the Israelian actions against known Islamist murders could be an example. A well developed intelligence helps to identify exactly the target and to act just against it. This is rather, sadly, not the case of American troops in Iraq „A good Iraqi is a dead one” is their motto.
So let’s fight against terrorism. But let’s not fight against innocent people.