Not 'Terror'

It is a grave error to label those who brutally attack civilians 'terrorists' or to describe such actions with this most ambiguous term -- which connotes 'liberation' for those who support it and ascribes 'evil' to it by those who are victimized. The hatred on both sides engendered by such mischaracterization risks dehumanizing any and all held to be in league with one's 'evil enemies'. We have had enough in our lifetimes of Muslims hating Christians and Christians hating Muslims -- and both hating Jews!

Far better is the use of our standard legal language: 'criminal act', 'mass murder', whatever will clearly indicate that such actions are morally and _legally_ wrong -- even 'crimes against humanity':

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimes_against_humanity

It is high time that we stopped using inflated language that allows even the slightest justification for our crimes. There are rules to our human games designed to set limits on criminal activities -- in peacetime and in war. But it is all too easy to slip into extremes of revenge and over reaction when we conceptually exaggerate things -- calling them 'evil' with all those archetypal emotive overtones that set religious against religious -- whatever disclaimers to the contrary by those who would defend what is really a drive for retaliatory revenge!

We desperately need to halt our horrendously dangerous clash between (religious) cultures and get back to the rule of law!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort
to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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