[ExI] Religions are not the ultimate cause of war

[Mirco Romanato]

Il 30/09/2012 12:55, Charlie Stross ha scritto:

> "Terrorism is a TACTIC, not an IDEOLOGY."

Agree

> This is an important distinction to make. We designate people as
> terrorists because of WHAT they do, not WHY they do it.

In fact, a tactic is morally neutral. An ideology is not.

> Here's the distinction: terrorism is a term applied to any tactic
> designed to *terrify* a civilian population into doing something that
> the user of those tactics want. The British RAF fire-bombing of
> German cities during WW2 was pretty clearly an act of terrorism
> intended to demoralize and scare the German civilian population
> towards surrender. So were the Nazi mass-reprisals against civilian
> populations in territories they'd occupied, killing large numbers of
>  random civilians for each German soldier killed by the resistance.

I disagree on this.

The V1 and V2 bombing of London was a terrorist action, because it was 
aimed to terrorize Londoners. It had not other military goals.

During WW2 the laws of war allowed for a right of reprisal, so many
reprisal were lawful at the time:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reprisal

"The tribunal emphasized that before reprisals could be legally
undertaken, a number of conditions had to be satisfied:
There had to be a previous act by the other party that violated
international law.
Reprisals had to be preceded by an unsatisfied demand for reparation or
compliance with the violated international law.
There must be proportionality between the offense and reprisal."

This was done openly during the war in North Italy for example from both 
Italians anti-fascists and fascists/Germans.

http://goo.gl/3JjoK

Obviously, the winners went blameless and the memory of their terrorist 
actions and reprisals was suppressed.

As much as I don't like Fascists and Nazis, I'm not blind to the fact 
the other side (Communist, Socialists and others) fought as much hard 
and dirty as them.

You know, "war is hell" and escalation is the way it work.
People hate losing wars.

http://www.laltraverita.it/documenti/pansa.htm

Giampaolo Pansa, renowned writer and journalist, has published a book on 
the guys from Salò to many controversies: de \"the sons of the Eagle\". 
Postagli asked in an interview in which he wondered if that that book 
would have been much hindered and hated, Pansa said he \"won't give a 
damn\", having already used to being mistaken for a \"fascist\". \"I 
have always thought that you cant tell a party without telling the 
other. Although these two parts I still think they are both minority 
languages, and that dominate the gray area mentioned in Renzo De Felice. 
(…..) We cannot say that all those who were Social Republic were 
torturers, executioners \". Another noteworthy step back on attitudes 
held by many intellectuals at that time, first of all the Nobel Prize 
Dario Fo: \"even now Dario Fo find of pretexts to say it is not true 
that he enlisted from that part. Says that in Switzerland you couldn't 
go that the borders were closed, and stayed, are \"bales. As someone 
said, \"the Nobel Laureate Dario Fo is the first Nobel Prize awarded to 
a veteran of the Italian Social Republic\": but that's another story, 
one of those stories that in textbooks probably won't find space

By the way, the current ex-Communist President in Italy was a fascist 
when 20 years old.

http://goo.gl/WTdpc

He exalted the Soviet tanks in Budapest, in Parliament, at the time of 
the Soviet invasion in the '50s

And this is an interesting video about him from 2004
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW2as6ZL1MA

About how he was "reimbursed" 800€ for a fly with a price of 90€ (not 
the only and not one time).

And he nominated the current Prime Minister Mario Monti.

Do you see a trend, here?

Mirco