| Murder's Semantics |
October
2002 |
He's a Psycho, Not a Terrorist
Members of the media and their pundit buddies have been rather sloppy in labeling the Beltway Sniper a terrorist. It is true that he has killed more Americans this month than Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein put together, and that he has parents fearing for the safety of their kids during school hours. But that doesn't make him a terrorist.
Terrorism is the use of violence against civilian populations, often by only a single individual, in support of some political end. Without that political end, there is no "ism" -- only terror.
What's in a name, though? Too much for us to be lax in our usage. The western world is at war, and the enemy employs only terrorist strategies. To cloud the issue by throwing in what most criminal profilers suggest is a deranged person with hollow-point bullets undermines our knowledge of who we are fighting and why.
We are at war with people who think in terms of one great attack, spectacular perhaps, that is supposed to crush our will to resist. They do not understand the American character. We cannot be beaten into submission, but we can be bored into it. Day after day of living on pins and needles would do it. Imagine the whole country living life as they do in suburban Washington today, and imagine it going on for a year, or two or three.
Our enemies don't have that stamina, nor the understanding to use it if they did. Lucky us.