"In order to truly defeat an opponent they must be crushed."

Without agreeing totally with that, what you seem to be saying that terrorism was used as a legitimate strategic tactic by a democracy in order to "crush" an enemy.

And that's all I'm saying. That terror is used by everyone, not just the bad guys. When you try to get around that, you wind up with tortured definitions, denial, and endless justification.

On this board we seem to try to say that unjustified "terrorism" is that which THEY do, righteous retribution is what WE do. Sort of an international "He hit me first, so I get to kill him".

Terrorism is terrorism.

Or, as Carl Jung said, "The center of all iniquity lies 5 miles behind enemy lines."

Arf