Some words are hard to say and some are hard to understand. I don’t think anybody can find any meaning in the word “eleemosynary,” for example, without either knowing the word or having training in Latin or Greek. The word, which means charitable, is one that would need to be known, it could not be figured out, and quite understandably so. It’s less understandable when the word is not so alien and certain people still can’t find any meaning.

The world’s population (especially Americans) have seen the word terror in all its glory. We have a War on Terror, terrorists, and terrorism. Sadly, those words and phrases have been construed to mean something other than what they’re supposed to. So, back to the basics.

Terrorism

Dictionary.app defines terrorism as “the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.” I partly agree. More simply, I believe the purpose of terrorism is to create terror (defined as “extreme fear; the use of such fear to intimidate people, esp. for political reasons”). Terrorists will certainly use violence, but for the purposes of intimidation because terrorists are not stupid (well they are, but not that stupid). They know that there is no way they can kill every single enemy. It’s probably not the individual people they’re after anyway - it’s the ideology. But we are paralyzed by fear so if a terrorist wishes to derail our society, creating fear of being killed will work just as well as actually being killed.

So the goal of a terrorist act is to create that paralyzing terror. It’s not always about killing. Certainly, from a terrorist perspective, the more people killed the better, but that is not the goal of their actions.

Incorrect, Malicious Usage

I’ve grown increasingly frustrated with coverage of the War on Terror because I don’t think we’re actually fighting terror. We’re fighting different enemies now than we were on 9/11. The intent of the enemies of today is not always to reach some broad political justice or even to create terror. We’re not fighting just one enemy either - there are thousands of different people fighting us for hundreds of different reasons.

Unfortunately, the coverage (largely, I believe, fueled by the Bush Administration’s manipulation of the press and the press’s negligence in following the story) would have a reader or viewer believe that the world is split into good people and terrorists. That’s a huge oversimplification! The Administration is throwing “terror” and its derivatives around to create terror in order to make their job easier. I am even so bold as to say that the Bush Administration has played the role of accessory to terrorism by using that word for their political goals.

The truth is that some people are terrorists, some people are good people, many people don’t like the United States, and some of those people are going to get violent with their hatred. That doesn’t make them terrorists. We will know terrorists when we see them, just as we knew the true meaning of terrorism on 9/11. But pretending that every enemy is a terrorist or opponents of the Administration are assissting terrorists by making reasonable inquiries is terrorism in itself. It’s deceitful and dishonest, disingenuous at best and treacherous at worst. It’s insulting to the true victims of terror and we best safeguard against our own government becoming a vehicle of terror, maliciously maintaining a state of fear for its own benefit.