[flatline]

Originally Posted by muerteverde

Ok, fine, terrorism as a politcal and military tactic has been around for thousands of years.

Scaring someone is the basic ingredient of terrorism, but there are a few other important elements. The terrorizing is done either by violence or the threat of violence. The purpose of the induced state of terror is to cause the victim to meet your demands and do what you want. This will be less effective in a dictatorship, for example, because the state of fear in a populace is less important than in a democracy where the people make decisions. Nevertheless, terrorism can still be seen throughout history.

Are you stating that terror tactics is 'violence or the threat of violence'?

Could you tell us all why what we know as modern terrorism (aka guerilla warfare) came about? What need inspired it? What purposes it serves? How you do it? Anything?

[Mithra]

Now all we have to do is keep the nukes in "safe" hands and let all the other Middle Eastern countries deal with their own insurgencies...

If we cannot spread Democracy, the least we can do is insurgency behavior throughout the Middle East.

[MicroBrew]

Terrorism is as old as war/invasion/conquest itself.

I would think that any group that got inavded/pillaged/their women raped/their community massacred and enslaved was terrorised.

[FallenXAngel]

We just need to turn that whole f_ing region into a glass factory

[ABACA]

Originally Posted by GermanBJJ

Um, terror tactics have existed for more than a millennium.

Get with the picture - America is the root of all evil.

[flatline]

Originally Posted by MicroBrew

Terrorism is as old as war/invasion/conquest itself.

I would think that any group that got inavded/pillaged/their women raped/their community massacred and enslaved was terrorised.

That isn't terrorism, thats pillaging, barbarism, whatever. Terrorism is a modern set of tactics developed for use in modern times. Theres a reason why it was developed, and why it didn't exist prior to the late 40s/early 50s.

[flatline]

Originally Posted by Mithra

Now all we have to do is keep the nukes in "safe" hands and let all the other Middle Eastern countries deal with their own insurgencies...

If we cannot spread Democracy, the least we can do is insurgency behavior throughout the Middle East.

A couple good ideas to start with might be to stop supporting brutal dictators, and stop supporting nations who sell off nuclear secrets like hotcakes to potential enemies. I could be wrong though.

[TheMMAn]

Originally Posted by flatline

That isn't terrorism, thats pillaging, barbarism, whatever. Terrorism is a modern set of tactics developed for use in modern times. Theres a reason why it was developed, and why it didn't exist prior to the late 40s/early 50s.

Really. Then what is this exact definition of terrorism as you use it? (it will be fun watching you attempt to use a source other than PrisonPlanet).

People who have actually studied this field say that it has been around since, at the very least, the 14th Century, with the Tartars at Kaffa.

The word used today to encompass a myriad of definitions relating to the use of terror as a tactic, was coined during the French Revolution.

Waiting for your definition that restricts the meaning of terrorism to acts performed only after the 1940's.

[flatline]

Originally Posted by TheMMAn

Really. Then what is this exact definition of terrorism as you use it? (it will be fun watching you attempt to use a source other than PrisonPlanet).

People who have actually studied this field say that it has been around since, at the very least, the 14th Century, with the Tartars at Kaffa.

The word used today to encompass a myriad of definitions relating to the use of terror as a tactic, was coined during the French Revolution.

Waiting for your definition that restricts the meaning of terrorism to acts performed only after the 1940's.

To use fear and terror is one thing, to use terror tactics is another. Terrorism in my mind is the same as guerilla warfare, its a way to manipulate or depose political movements without the use of a conventional nation-state force. The reason why terror tactics were created was so that countries could acheive their mostly political but sometimes also economic aims in countries that they would get in trouble for invading with a flag waving force. So they train and fund rebels in those countries in order to go back to their country and build a grass roots force. They then meet the objectives by bombing, kidnapping, disseminating information, and framing political opponents for the attacks committed by the terror cells. Terror tactics emerged during Operation Gladio and its full use was realised in Operation Ajax, the overthrow of Moussadeq.

[Gregster]

Wow...a damning indictment of the invasion of Iraq if ever there was one: on top of everything else, the Iraqis went ahead and invented this...what's it called? Oh, yeah: "armed insurgency." Yeah, that's never happened before. Well, unless you count the past 2,000 years or so, give or take, since at least the First Jewish War prompted by Caligula claiming he was a god (and you thought Dubya was nuts...he just *talks* to God) and ordered himself worshipped, leading to a revolt that was eventually crushed by Vaspasians' legions (and you better believe that when the Romans crushed a rebellion, that rebellion was good and crushed, usually because everyone else was dead).