Terrorism

Photo by Ronald L. Haeberle on 16 March 1968 showing the aftermath of the My Lai massacre, in which Statesian forces raped, tortured, and murdered hundreds of Vietnamese civilians, mostly women, children, and the elderly. This was not an isolated incident but rather part of a much broader campaign of state terror by U.S. forces during the Vietnam War.

Terrorism is the doctrine of using political violence to influence public opinion, either by inducing a state of terror within a population in order to destroy its morale and pressure its leaders, or by "awakening" people and inspiring them to commit similar acts (see propaganda of the deed). The targets of terrorist acts are chosen randomly (e.g. civilians and non-combatants) or are selected for based on their importance (leaders). It can be perpetrated by both individuals and groups, both state and non-state actors. It is a politically-charged term, commonly used by Western governments and propagandists in order to demonise anti-imperialist movements and justify their own terror, no matter how righteous said movements may be in their struggle.

Karl Marx famously wrote in the final issue of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung that "When our turn comes, we shall not make excuses for the terror." Lenin rejected the individual terrorism of the Socialist-Revolutionaries due to its evident ineffectiveness, but noted approvingly that those who condemned revolutionary terror on principle were mocked by Plekhanov. Once in power, the Bolsheviks initiated their own campaign of revolutionary terror against their opponents.

Liberal terminology

In the 1970s, "Israel" tried to popularize the term "terrorism" to describe Palestinian freedom fighters. In July 1979, the Jerusalem Conference on International Terrorism declared that all "terrorists" were part of a single movement backed by the Soviet Union. In the 1980s, CIA director William Casey concluded that, while the USSR funded some movements in the Global South, it did not direct all "terrorist" entities in the world.

Mainstream use of the term decreased after 2011 before returning to prominence in 2023 with the War on Gaza.

Western terrorism

Ronald Reagan supported the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet Army in the 1980s. After the fall of the Soviet Union, his successors transported the same militants into Bosnia and Kosovo to destroy Yugoslavia.

The United Kingdom financed right wing Unionist terrorism against Irish Catholic civilians and Irish Republican resistance organizations during the Troubles. This included Ulster Defence Regiment soldiers who were also members of Unionist terrorist groups and conspiracies to fund the Ulster Volunteer Force materially within the British army.

The CIA facilitated right wing coups in Latin America and subsequently built a network of terror called Operation Condor beginning officially in 1975, though the intelligence sharing network existed as early as 1974. The network facilitated the murder, kidnapping, torture, disappearance and arrest of leftist and other political dissidents, including those who had left their home countries. In 1978, amidst the resistance campaigns of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, the Red Brigades, the Red Army Faction, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, among others, France, the United Kingdom and West Germany planned to establish a similar network of repression.