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From: tedrick@ernie.BERKELEY.EDU (Tom Tedrick)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Terrorism
Message-ID: <11215@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Thu, 12-Dec-85 05:14:55 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.11215
Posted: Thu Dec 12 05:14:55 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 13-Dec-85 21:00:50 EST
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Reply-To: tedrick@ernie.UUCP (Tom Tedrick)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
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>     Terrorism = attacking of civilian population not directly
>               involved in a war effort.

The problem I see with this definition is that the current
theory of war as I understand it includes attacks on the civilian
population as an integral part. The idea is that by attacking
the civilian population you induce demoralization and contribute
to the breakdown of the society as a whole.

This doctrine was practiced extensively by both sides in WWII.
For example consider the bombing of London, the bombing of
German cities, the V1 and V2 rocket attacks on England, the
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was originally
intended that the ancient capital, Kyoto, be bombed first,
with the explicit purpose of destroying Japanese culture
so as to demoralize the civilian population. Fortunately
someone stopped that particular act of war.

Anyway, terrorizing the civilian population is accepted in
the theory of war as a means towards destruction of the
enemy. This principle is currently being extensively 
applied in Afghanistan, where the Soviets are using every
method they can think of, no matter how brutal, disgusting,
immoral, and degrading, to demoralize and destroy the
opposition.

I claim that the current terrorist activities are part of a world wide
low level war between the Soviets and the west. Part of the idea
is to induce conflict between various groups, so that the Soviets
can move in while the others are preoccupied fighting each other.
So these terrorist activities are most definitely acts of war.
For example the Soviets support and exploit Arab terrorism against
Israel in order to gain territory in the Middle East.

The definition is probably good if you don't claim that
terrorism is distinct from war.