A Skeptical Look At The Concept of Terrorism

International Law is that body of law which creates rights for me and duties for you. I fight wars of self-defence. You fight imperialistic wars of aggression. I am a patriotic soldier.

You are a war criminal. I am a freedom fighter. You are a terrorist. It is in language of this character that we carry on rational discourse in these days.

These are the conventional epithets of the contemporary epic. We have cause to regret that a legal concept of "terrorism" was ever inflicted upon us. The term is imprecise; it is ambiguous; and above all, it serves no operative legal purpose.