One Man's Terrorist

As to “terrorism”, and how it's defined, now we have no less than the supreme leader of Iran accusing us – us! -- of terrorism, citing drone strikes that have killed civilians in Afghanistan. He “said a country whose military forces are responsible for such deaths cannot lecture the world about fighting terror.” Well, yeah... but if only it wasn't him who said it! We're obviously not going to accept criticism of this sort from a country that _we_ have defined as “terrorist” -- are we now? But here's what I like – call it a candidate for the “Hall of Fame of the Obvious”. The article goes on to point out that “the statement... revealed the differences between Iran and the United States on the issue of who is a terrorist and who is a freedom fighter.” Well, duh! The Iranian leader even dared to point out that we have accused Palestinians of terrorism when they, in fact, “fight for the liberation of their land”.

OK, here's an idea – and this could be picked up in a heartbeat by all the media, government agencies, press secretaries, etc., and it would simplify the dialog greatly. Let's just, from now on, call anyone who is fighting (on whatever side) in a country not their own a “terrorist”. And let's call anyone who is fighting (on whatever side) in their own country a “freedom fighter”. So, for example, any Iraqi citizen fighting within the boundaries of Iraq is a freedom fighter; ditto Afghanistan. And any Iraqi or Afghan fighting on our soil is a “terrorist”. So far, so good. Also, any non-Iraqi fighting on Iraqi soil is a “terrorist”. No one's going to argue with that, as long as it refers to people from other Arab/Islamic nations pursuing “jihad”. But... it also refers to all U.S. military personnel in Iraq. So this kind of combines everyone's point of view into a single, unified point of view -- terminology-wise, at least.

And yes, this is a hard saying – but it corresponds better with the reality of the situation than any of the propaganda that continues to pour our of the mouths of the administration and their media facilitators.