Who Decides?

Is A Freedom Fighter is A Terrorist?

by Imran Anwar

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"I wish for peace" wrote: A case in point is the conflict in the middle east.

You make a valid point, and it would appear that at least one of the things they were hitting at the US is its support for what they see as Israeli use of US supplised "defence" weapons on civilians as well F16s etc. on others armed with rifles etc. in what are internationally recognized as occupied territories. I do not wish to start a political debate in an aviation forum in a tragic time, but someone's "kicking ass" on people they occupy using US' friendship & weapons causes more hatred against US *policy* but innocent people in the WTC get murdered by psychos without even knowing what someone hated THEM for.

> The Israeli's are the
> most competent anti-terrorist nation on this planet. But even today, after
> many many years of conflict, they are forced to deal with terrorism daily...

I just want to make sure the other side of the picture is also presented. In the case of a group of people seeking an end to Occupation of their land one person's terrorism is the other side's fight for freedom. A person considered and called a terrorist by the British when he waged war against them was later Israel's Prime Minister. Do we then say Israel is a state founded/run by terrorists?

There is one basic truth to foreign policy for most countries, if not all. It is based on self-iinterest. As long as one takes care of their interests but without causing harm to others, or supporting or causing injustices, or propping up tyrants, the world works fairly well.

The same goes for what most governments call people. When they are on our side they are freedom fighters when they are opposed to us they are terrorists is how it tends to be played in propaganda from whichever government or nation you will listen to.

I think a more important distinction is to see, if someone IS fighting to remove occupying forces that IS a freedom fighter e.g. Palestinians vs. Israelis (please remember it is not MUSLIMS vs. JEWS as some call it) or Kashmiris vs. Indians or Timorese vs. Indonesians or the Afghanis vs. Soviets (whether someone likes them or not). Someone who attacks (especially civilians like in the WTC or what Pakistanis feel with weekly bomb explosions in random places killing civilians) a country just to destablize it or export their political or any other beliefs, that is terrorism. Many countries have been guilty of that, ours included. So many people can have valid or invalid grudges vs. the US. Attacking the WTC and killing innocent people is murder, whether you are Muslim, Christian or Jew, and the world agrees on that point.

So, using the Middle East case in particular, even as a Muslim I would consider: If they would be able to get their occupied homeland back and their nation they would be Palestinian freedom fighters whose struggle was complete. BUT, once they have their homeland and they start blowing themselves up in Tel Aviv to try to demand a destruction of Israel and asking the Jews to march off into the sea or just disrupting life and business by explosions, they would be terrorists. They would still be the same people, they would still be Muslims, but even to me they would be different from before.

> and the enemy is in their cities and in their back yard, not half way around
> the planet.

The enemy is ...hatred, bigotry, injustice, exploitation, drugs, crime, disease, poverty.... in every nation's midst. Not to mention, we forget the NYSE was bombed 81 YEARS AGO not from half way around the world as someone recently told me. The Black Panthers or the mafia did not come from the middle east. Timothy McVeigh and David Koresh did not grow up in Afghanistan or occupied Palestine.

> God Bless America and it's people. You have all been very good to me, and I
> will be here to do whatever I can to help.

Ditto. (My comments on that are at http://www.imran.com/ ) and you and I can help by not using the opportunity for gainnig political sympathy for our own causes by making generalized statements that equate the WTC murderers with people seeking an end to their occupation elsewhere in the world.

I too wish, as well as hope, pray and work for peace AND justice for everyone, everywhere....without which they say there is never peace. In the interest of keeping this focused on flying, and my energies on sharing the positives of us living as one nation, and one people of the human race, I do not wish to clutter this newsgroup with political discussions. If someone has a problem with my posting, please feel free to take it up with me by email or via some political newsgroup. Thank you for your attention and for the many many positive emails I have already gotten from those who read my WTC posting at http://www.imran.com .

God Bless America, but remember, it is merely a big piece of land with a lot of resources if it was not for the People of the United States, so I say, God Bless Americans even more.

Kind regards

Imran Anwar http://www.imran.com/flying/

http://www.imran.com for opinions on what happened and why and what's next.