Friday, July 29, 2005

Terrorists and Moral Equivalence

In an interview with ABC, Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev - said through an interpreter that he was "a bad guy, a bandit".


"Ok, so I'm a terrorist, but what would you call them (the Russians)?"
Let's review.

Do the Russians make it their Modus Operandi to kidnap civillians and threaten to, and indeed, kill them if their demands aren't met? Do they attack civilians in order to strike fear into other civilians to affect policy?

No.

Conclusion: the Russians are not terrorists.

You can be wrong and not be a terrorist (not saying the Russians are right or wrong here, just leaving that judgement open). You can even kill civilians and not be a terrorist. Terrorists mean to kill civilians, and the more the better.

As long as people buy the moral equivalence argument that a death = a death, we, the civilized people of the world, will never win "The War on Terror".

Party A being wrong does not justify terrorism on the part of Party B. Nothing does.

Terrorism is always wrong, even if your cause is just.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do they attack civilians in order to strike fear into other civilians to affect policy?

No.

Let me guess! Do you get that information from the Russian media?

Phil said...

Oh, I don't know. Can you give me an example where the Russian government went in and started indiscriminantly slaughtering people as they went about their daily business?

I'd be the first to back down if I could be shown I'm wrong. But there is a difference between targeting participants in a political or military conflict (right or wrong) and blowing up random people in a bus station or a restaurant.

Or... for instance... children at a school.