Response to Ynnatchkah

Submitted by Geoffrey Sherwood (United States), Nov 19, 2007 at 21:27

Dear Ynnatchkah,

Thank you for your response. The point is not whether Hamas and the Contras are similar in some respects. I am focusing on one aspect only: use of terrorism. Are you saying that the Contras never engaged in acts of terrorism against Nicaraguan civilians? Or that the U.S. had no knowledge of that terrorism? Or that the U.S. did not continue to aid Saddam Hussein in spite of knowing that he had terrorized the Kurds with WMD?

There are not different gradations of culpability depending on who is supporting which terrorists. Terrorism is terrorism. International law, and the standard definitions of terrorism that the U.S. claims to support, do not distinguish between Hamas' terrorism, Saddam Hussein's terrorism, and the Contras' terrorism.

Or would you prefer to rewrite the definition of terrorism as: It's only terrorism when it's committed by my political enemies?

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