[quote=afx114][quote=surveyor]Said ‘Allah Akbar’ then started shooting. Terrorist.[/quote]
If a platoon holds a prayer before going on a mission, does that make their mission religiously motivated? Does it make them terrorists?[/quote]
I’d say no. Because a particular motivation doesn’t make one a terrorist.
Somehow religious motivation for any violent act has come to equal terrorism. I’m not sure how that happened, but it certainly is the wrong way to look at it.
The whole idea behind terrorism is that you strike fear in people’s hearts by hurting others with the intent to motivate those still living to act in a way you want them to act. You can’t terrorize a dead person. People who are terrorized LIVE in terror. They see ongoing killings or torture and know that they or their families could be next if they don’t behave the way the killer wants them to behave.
The people killed at Mt. Hood had no idea this was coming. They were killed, not terrorized. They never lived in fear of this man. They never had to choose between living a life they wanted with the fear of getting tortured vs. living the life someone else wants them to live and not getting tortured. After the killings, the killer never said “do or I’ll kill again.” He never said “after I’m dead, my cohorts will continue the killing spree if we don’t get our way.”
Yelling something before killing someone just doesn’t cut it. The distinction between shooting someone or shooting someone and yelling something in a language the shootee doesn’t understand is pretty slim. Neither consitutes terrorism without any coersion to do something.
With that said, I’d say McVeigh is on the edge. I could go either way. He really didn’t issue demands either and I don’t recall him sending any kind of message after the bombing before he was arrested. However, after capture, he certainly did make demands of the government, though by then he was powerless to take any further action.
