Define terrorist and tell me how a terrorist differs from a killer.?

Question

I want to know what makes a person or group a terrorist and what distinguishes them from a mass killer whether they are foreign or domestic. I myself believe Bush and the administration have pounded the word terrorism in to everyones mind so much that it is pre-programed in everyday life. What do you think! BRAINWASHED people, I think!!!!!!!!!

Answer 1

Terrorist= George Bush and Dick Cheney!! LOL!!

Answer 2

A terrorist is obviously someone who uses the craft of terrorism. Terrorism is simply put an act of violence, be it actual or percieved that goes against a certain group or area. Yes Bid Laden is a terrorist in American eyes. But in a large number of Islamic eyes he is a holy fighter. Just as our founding fathers were considered terrorists by the British. A terrorist is just simply put a word. Where as with a killer you know without a doubt what the final action is going to be. A death/murder of some form. Where as with terrorism it is so much more complex. Yes you have killers that are terrorist, but you also have other forms of terrorism that are just as deadly. Using fear to guide your hand in either local/state/national elections. Paying off those who would possibly "be in charge." These are all things that can be considered terrorism. The "general" difference I see between a a terrorist and a mass killer is that no matter what the case may by, the terrorist is actually working towards a set goal. Just my thoughts§

Answer 3

A terrorist is someone whose purpose is to strike terror in the heart of others, to get what they want through this method. They have an agenda (not that some murders don't). But basically in some part they are the same thing, it's just they are more organized and in groups.

What the terrorists don't get is the more you push us the more we push back. We bond together from these acts not cower in fear, hence the surge in patriotism immediately following 9/11.

Answer 4

A terrorist is someone who goes out with the intent of causing fear and disruption of normal social events from something as small as personal entertainment and security to something as big as economical trading between countries.

A killer can be anyone who's killed. People kill for all sorts of reasons. They can kill for money, kill to satiate some mental deficiency, ... kill on accident even.

Terrorists can be killers, but they don't have to be (think of cyber terrorists, hacking into networks to get secrets). Killers can be terrorists, but they don't have to be.

And I think the term "terrorist" as Bush and his administration use it is 100% correct. Sometimes it's hard to identify the difference between something, especially if the term wasn't used that often in the past, but it's being used a lot now to describe the type of enemy we're fighting now.

Answer 5

in my opinion a terrorist is a person that harms other persons based on a fanatical reason (usually religious or ethnic). does not necessary mean that he is mentally disturbed. just brain washed by his/ her leaders. which, by the way, don't give a s**t about their followers...
the mass killer is often a mental case ...
about the bush thing i can't say anything since i'm not american. but i'm sure the truth is somewhere in the middle.
actually i'm glad that your nation has made this step towards civilizing those fanatic muslims. they are the greatest threat to human rights and they follow a religion based on murdering those that don't agree with them (much as the inquisition in the dark ages).
unfortunately i don't think you will have any success. they're too many ... and they have too much oil :D

Answer 6

You're missing about 30 years of history. Here's some reading so that you can catch up. I'll make it easy for you. Instead of giving you book titles to buy, I'll give you subjects that you can google:

Black September
Hijackings
Olympics in Munich
Iran hostage crisis
Marine barracks
6-day war
PLO
Assassination of Anwar Sadat
Lebanese civil war

...there, that should get you started. (Hint: none of these events took place during Bush's presidency.)

Now, in case you didn't know, our last five presidents were all involved in directly combating terrorism in the Middle East. "Terrorism" has been a buzzword in the US for decades.

To answer your question, terrorism involves administrative organization, funding, training, government sponsorship and housing, and often networking (in the case of Al Qa'ida).

A killer is one man or woman.

Answer 7

Terrorism, from what I understand, is committing an act that causes terror/fear into a population with the intent to further a cause/make a cause known. It doesn't have to involve murder, though it is an effective tool in terrorism(who isn't afraid of dying?). A theoretical example of a non-lethal terrorist could be our current administration, who expounded frequently on their ability to defend our country from terrorism while trying to undermine the Democrats' said ability to do so in the future. Using terrorism to fight terrorism, no? =)

Answer 8

A terrorist is a non gouvernment person that plan/order/excecutes actions that leads to death off many civilian people. A terrorists goal is to crash a civilian gouvernment by killing the countrys habitants. A terrorist is also an enemy (you dont call people that fight with you a terrist, do you?) Johan

Answer 9

A terrorist is not much different than a killer like Saddam and Bin Ladin.

Answer 10

if you do not know what a terrorist is , then you will probably end up as a victim of one. I know because I think.