Knothole houses a dangerous terrorist cell

[Oni Lukos]

We must bomb the crap out of it.

This totally isn't an inapt allusion. Nope.

[Sofox]

No kidding, those guys were placing and detonating explosives in and around factories to damage our economy.

Edit: I was reading a book about terrorism a bit ago and it said how Luke Skywalker and co were essentially terrorists to illustrate how once you learn enough about terrorism, you find it's a slippery slope where it becomes hard to define what's right and what's wrong. I can sorta understand it, I mean everyone want's to feel good about themselves, and one major way of doing this is to take down and defeat a great evil. Unfortunately, life's not that simple and the decision to classify other human beings as evil can lead to the justification of some pertty horrible actions. in the end, it's best just to get the most information and clearest perspective on the situation that you can and make your own decisions.

[Sz]

Terrorism is using fear as a weapon by means of violence on civilians.

There's no need to overcomplicate it.

[Artemus]

sofox said:

I was reading a book about terrorism a bit ago and it said how Luke Skywalker and co were essentially terrorists to illustrate how once you learn enough about terrorism, you find it's a slippery slope where it becomes hard to define what's right and what's wrong. I can sorta understand it, I mean everyone want's to feel good about themselves, and one major way of doing this is to take down and defeat a great evil. Unfortunately, life's not that simple and the decision to classify other human beings as evil can lead to the justification of some pertty horrible actions. in the end, it's best just to get the most information and clearest perspective on the situation that you can and make your own decisions.

Except the Empire blew up planets. Planets with civilizations on them.

So I think it's safe to say they were bad guys.

[Night the SR]

Rebellion and terrorism are two different things.

That book is bunk.

[GagaMan]

You know who's also a terrorist?



BOMBERMAN.

[J]

In multi-player, maybe. In single-player, not a chance in hell.

[Sofox]

nighthedgehog said:

Rebellion and terrorism are two different things.

That book is bunk.

Not quite as different as you'd think. (ed) I mean, you're still dealing with people who feel that they have been wronged or at the mercy or threat of another power and so respond with action and violence in hope of changing things. Take Northern Ireland for instance, no way am I justifying anything either side did, but you had the IRA for example, setting their goal as freeing Northern Ireland from British rule, like the rest of Ireland had already been. In addition, you had a government and many major employers who were loyal to the British crown and prejudice against the Irish nationalists. So while in a way the IRA were rebels in that they were trying to overturn British rule, they were also terrorists in that they launched many guerilla attacks and tragically, some were against civilians. I don't condone their actions and I honestly think they could have gone about it a different way but even I acknowledge that though their actions caused much violence, misery, ruined lives and despair, they did force the English government to take note of the situation in Northern Ireland, although often the British responded arrogantly in ways that only seemed to spur more support for the IRA, such as the horrible internment without trial that effectively allowed British troops to arrest and lock anyone up without trial. Yeah, it was a mess there for a while.
I guess the one difference is the targets, whether they are civilian or military.

Oh, and separating terrorism from the climate and situation that generated it in the first place is a critical mistake.

[NeroKid]

tl;dr

[Sauko]

neroman said:

tl;dr

I agree with this bold and informative statement.