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The_Jazz: According to your definition, only non-state actors can carry out terrorism; but because of the moral connotations that are (for better or worse) inescapably attached to the word, I feel we must define terrorism as a particular kind of violence rather than violence coming from a particular person or type of people. I think you would agree that the former method is far more precise and objective.
ratbastid: I agree with you that the word is often used in a meaningless way, and that it is more often a political tool than not. I do believe that by circumventing the word itself in order to discuss the issues and acts behind it in this thread, we can all sharpen our thinking and perhaps even our language in the future, and resist the urge to play the T-card when it is not appropriate or accurate to do so.
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