Who Isn't a Terrorist?
It seems to be getting increasingly difficult to find someone who isn't considered a terrorist.
- Colombian security officials called Fredy Munoz, a Venezuelan reporter for Venezuelan network Telasur, a terrorist in relation to bombings on the Caribbean Coast in 2002.
- Indonesian protestors called President Bush a terrorist and war criminal on the occasion of his visit;
- Iraq's Shiite Interior Minister Jawad Al Bolani called leading Sunni cleric, a terrorist inciter;
- American students called the Navy SEALS and Green Berets terrorists;
- Great Britain may call Russia terrorist for its suspected role in the poisoning of a former KGB agent in London; although Russia denies involvement, the case is being investigated by counterterrorism units;
- A man from New Jersey was charged with abetting terrorists, for helping distribute satellite broadcasts of Hizbollah television, Al Manar;
- A Palestinian official called Israel a terrorist state after an artillery strike in Gaza killed 18 people.
That's in the last few days.
In the few years: Italian soccer player Marco Materazzi allegedly called French player Zinedine Zidane a "dirty terrorist" during the 2006 World Cup playoffs. An Israeli army deserter who opened fire on Jewish Israeli bus passengers in 2005 was called a terrorist by Russia. A computer science professor at the University of South Florida was called a terrorist leader of Islamic Jihad by the US government.
In 2004 Education secretary Rod Paige called the National Education Association, the American teachers union, terrorist for encouragingg "scare tactics" to block No Child Left Behind legislation. Journalist Seymour Hersh was called a terrorist by Defense Policy Board member Richard Perle in 2003. In 2002, Muhammad, Islam's prophet, was called a terrorist by evangelist Jerry Falwell.
I don't mean to take serious matters lightly, and yet, at the rate we're going, there will soon be hardly anyone left who isn't considered a terrorist by at least someone. On the up side, maybe it will help us see how declarations of a war on terror could end up feeling like a war against ourselves.
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Comments
“”It seems to be getting increasingly difficult to find someone who isn’t considered a terrorist.”"
Oh heck, it isn’t all that difficult. “THEY” are ‘terrorists’ and “WE” aren’t.
After all, if (in the view of some staunch “Bushites”) “Democrat” equals “Traitor” and if (in the view of some staunch “anti-Bushites”) “Republican” equals “Nazi” and if BOTH “liberal” and “conservative” have been assigned meanings that have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with what the terms mean, why shouldn’t “everyone else” be considered a “terrorist”?
After all, it does simplify matters and you don’t have to make any effort to discover what the facts ACTUALLY are (so you aren’t likely to miss one thrill-packed, rip-roaring excitement filled, moment of the latest installment of “Let’s Make a Young and Restless Monster Tractor Pull Survivor”).