Why are certain paramilitary groups classified as terrorists?

Question

anyone know why the IRA and ETA are classified as "terrorist organisation"? is it just because they opposed oppression? or maybe perhaps because the rose against a "superpower" country?? i'm very curious

Answer 1

Maybe it's because they killed and maimed innocent civilians again and again (in recent times). The senseless killing in Belfast rarely hurt the British occupiers, just other civilian Irish (Catholic vs Protestant). It was pointless.

In the early 1900's the IRA were fighting to get their country back, and were more of a paramilitary operation. My grandmother's family were all IRA, several executed by the British. Their struggle was more akin to our own Revolutionary War for independence.

Fighting oppression does not justify bombing churches, schools, families' homes, train stations, or World Trade Centers. And anyway it's not effective. Just makes people hate you more.

Answer 2

Military organizations are classified as "terrorist" when they systematically target defenseless civilians rather than engaging armed enemy soldiers. The objective is to terrify the population by these senseless-seeming attacks, so that they will give up and surrender rather than fight back.
The IRA and ETA have both been guilty of this kind of abuse, however noble their objectives may have been.
Does the end justify the means? In this case, then, will the means become the ends? Evil means lead to evil results. That's one of the problems with terrorism.