Quote:
Originally posted by Morgeruat:
No, Terrorist is a term that describes "Terrorism refers to the use of violence for the purpose of achieving a political goal" Religious nutcases, well I wouldn't want to violate the moratorium with my title  And yes I know most of the actual "terrorists" in Iraq are foreign nationals hoping to be able to take a portion of the spoils (land and power in Iraq), don't believe me? those are the rules Islam has operated under for 1400 years, and they won't change now just because they're largely fighting coreligionists in this instance. They're not all looking to "liberate" or get their 72 virgins.
Terrorists who blow themselves up, or kidnap civilians, or do any of the other hundreds of despicable acts these bastards do deserve the title scum, as do any who support their acts, or would on any level defend them.
btw thanks for reminding me why I avoid this forum. [img]graemlins/flickoff.gif[/img]
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[img]smile.gif[/img] I agree with the sentiment, anyone who kills civilians, especially in such a cruel and callous way deserves to be labelled scum. But just three little points:
1) If killing civilians makes you scum, it probably should be pointed out that in the last half a year that military operations have been responsible for about a thousand more civilian deaths than terrorist attacks (this also includes operations by Iraqi security forces).
2) Even the Pentagon has largely given up pretending that most of the insurgents are foreign - the vast majority are in fact Iraqi. The general consensus (based upon Iraqi national intelligence agency estimates) are a 'hard core' of 20-40,000 fighters, with a further 150-200,000 'active supporters'. Of these, only several hundred (and I would certainly think no more than a couple of thousand at most) are foreign militants like Al-Zarqawi.
3) 72 virgins is an absolutely woeful mistranslation that's been somewhat seized upon for various nefarious purposes (both by extremists and western media) - the correct translation would be 'angels'. The notion of virgins in the afterlife is generally considered to have popped up in written tradition later (rather than in the Qu'ran) and thus is of dubious authenticity.
And don't leave the forum! What, with Magik being temporarily MIA, the CE forum is in danger of becoming 'left-heavy'. And that just wouldn't be interesting.
[ 02-02-2005, 12:51 PM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]