Comment Re:My grandfather was an IRA terrorist (Score 1) 666
these are actually different things - you can be a war hero and a terrorist at the same time.
you get to be called a war hero for having distinguished yourself by fighting in a war. "having distinguished" is decided by someone according to their agenda (nothing inherently wrong with that).
you get to be called a terrorist when you fight for something by committing acts of terror - targeting non-combatants in order to inspire terror, rather then to achieve a military goal. such a tactic could indirectly lead to a military goal (e.g. making a military campaign unsustainable, causing a loss of support for some policy, etc').
what is a terrorist act is reasonably clear, but not everyone who commits acts of terror gets to be called a terrorist. this again gets decided by someone, according to their agenda, etc'.
[a side note on morality:
ethics of war contains many grey areas, but targeting non-combatants directly or indirectly is always taken to be immoral (it is possible for non-combatants to get hurt even when not targeted, so that's a grey area).]
you get to be called a war hero for having distinguished yourself by fighting in a war. "having distinguished" is decided by someone according to their agenda (nothing inherently wrong with that).
you get to be called a terrorist when you fight for something by committing acts of terror - targeting non-combatants in order to inspire terror, rather then to achieve a military goal. such a tactic could indirectly lead to a military goal (e.g. making a military campaign unsustainable, causing a loss of support for some policy, etc').
what is a terrorist act is reasonably clear, but not everyone who commits acts of terror gets to be called a terrorist. this again gets decided by someone, according to their agenda, etc'.
[a side note on morality:
ethics of war contains many grey areas, but targeting non-combatants directly or indirectly is always taken to be immoral (it is possible for non-combatants to get hurt even when not targeted, so that's a grey area).]
