TERRORIST OR FREEDOM FIGHTER?

"Terrorism" is a word used so often and so loosely that it has lost a clear meaning. The term terrorism is sometimes merely applied because someone disagrees with the cause. Hence the expression "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter."

Value judgments
You could describe the French Resistance as terrorists, you could describe them as freedom fighters, or you could describe them as guerrillas. These terms are more or less synonymous, only separated by a value judgment. The lines become very blurred in the conflict between Israel and Palestine, as both sides have caused many civilian deaths.

In the 1920s, the original IRA fought a guerrilla war against the British, and won independence for Ireland. Its leader Michael Collins has since been termed the inventor of modern terrorism. Most Irish people would look on Collins as a hero while abhorring the IRA's current incarnation.

Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli Jew who was a technician at the Daimona nuclear reactor in the Negev, went public with what he says Israel's nuclear weapons capability. Many see him as a peace advocate and a whistle blower. Most Israelis see him as a traitor.

America as terrorist?
America has played a key role in defining who a terrorist is, in the last 10 years. This opposing view can help to explore the influence of our values, indoctrination and belief systems…..

George Bush proclaimed that America was “a peaceful nation” when the bombing of Afghanistan began. White American history started with hundreds of wars against the Indians and the entire "War of Independence" was successful armed rebellion against the king of Britain. The American people at the time were subjects to the crown, and hence rising in arms against him was an act of treason. If they were not successful, history would have recorded this as a rebellion of traitors who were executed and their memory lived only in shame.

In the 1950s, the USA was involved in covert operations, overthrowing the governments of Iran and Guatemala. After the Vietnam War, aid was given to the Indonesian dictator Suharto to carry on an internal war against the opposition, in the course of which several hundred thousand people are killed. Then the U.S. government, starting in 1975, provides critical support to Indonesia's campaign to subdue the people of East Timor, in which hundreds of thousands of people are killed.

Freedom fighters?
In the 1980s, Reagan began a covert war throughout Central America, in El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, and especially in Nicaragua, creating the counterrevolutionary force, the Contras, whom Reagan called "freedom fighters." There are clearly documented cases of the USA training Latin American insurgents in how to conduct terrorism through killing public figures.

In 1978, even before the Russians were in Afghanistan, the USA supplied arms to the rebel forces in Afghanistan, the mujahedeen. Some of these people turned out later to be the Taliban, the people who are now called the enemy.

George Bush Sr. came into office and launched wars against Panama and Iraq, and stationed troops in Saudi Arabia, which then became one of the major offenses for Osama bin Laden and other Saudi Arabian nationalists.

Foreign policy
The USA proclaims its foreign policy aims to further democracy around the world. This is in part true, but only when it benefits the USA politically and economically. There are numerous cases where democratically elected governments have been attacked, destabilized or brought down. In many countries, USA foreign policy has supported several million civilian deaths and supported terrorist governments in various parts of the world, especially in Latin America and the Middle East.

War crimes
The United States has consistently opposed the creation of an international war crimes tribunal because it could be used against people in the U.S. government and military. The United States wants to find other people who have committed war crimes, but an American by definition cannot commit a war crime.

Who can decide the difference between terrorists and freedom fighters?
This page is not intended to blame all the ills of the world on the USA, but serves to show there are two sides to every story. Our own religious, patriotic, philosophical and political beliefs play a role in who we define as terrorists. It is the brave person who attempts to see beyond their emotions and biases to define terrorism in a way that will see a better world result for everyone.