Terrorists and Militants - 2 comments

Before too many people use coverage of 7/07 to fuel their own pre-existing theories about the BBC (liberal bias; social democratic bias; anti-Israel bias; poor value for money; etc.), in the light of observations like this at Harry's, perhaps it's worth thinking whether terms like "terrorists", "militants", and "bombers" really are interchangeable:



Before I get any complaints, that's not to any scale whatsoever.

Clearly, any "militant" who participates in a bombing campaign is involved in terrorism ("terrorist"), but this presupposes political aims, rather than, say, the deliberate and indiscriminate slaughter of people from one particular town or country, or merely intending to cause widespread terror. It's 100% clear that we have bombing and murder, but it's not 100% clear that it was carried out for political motives, even if everybody has convinced themselves of this. Of course I'd rather not be blown up, but I'm sure I wouldn't care whether it was done for political reasons or not.

Take this: "Passenger believes he saw bomber" - what would we gain by pressurising the BBC to change it to "Passenger believes he saw terrorist"? You'd be replacing something that was demonstrable, and also specific to 7/07, with something that was unproven (terrorist status) and unspecific (any old terrorist?), albeit with added emotive value. It'd be nice to think the editors thought along the same lines.

Does it really make us feel better to see a threat from terrorists under some kind of banner, rather than an indiscriminate threat from bombers and potential murderers which is ever-present, even if it has become more likely in recent years? I thought we were supposed to have zero tolerance for their excuses for political ideology. Does this stop us being vigilant, weaken our resolve, or our commitment to eradicating the threat at source?

It shouldn't. After all, the "terrorist" label makes it more likely that some will see "freedom fighters", gives manipulating governments and media handy bogeymen, and, especially if there is Islamicist involvement, reinforces the idea that everything can be put back to normal once the "Palestinian situation" is "resolved" (those apostrophes again!!)