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re: "terror is as terror does"
gbaikie — (archived)

Nope.
When you are discussing Terrorists and Terror Weapons, you are talking about war against civilians. If instance if you used a tank against civilians it could be called a "terror weapon". For instance, say you were choosing a military target, one potential target was a densely populated city and other was a town with large military component. If you decide to attack the city because it's easiest to kill or at least affect more people, then you are employing terror tactics.
The extent in which you "scare enemy soldiers" has nothing to do with Terror. Rather it has everything to do with miltary objectives, and purposes of a weapon. Now for instance, if you were talking about weapons which destroyed electrical power grids, this could be argued to be a terror weapon- because it's purpose could be argued is to affect mostly civilian populations- if the enemy miltary was not connected to grid and using it in some way, then it's definitely a terror tactic.
So it's not "terror is as terror does" it's all about what the miltary targets and the miltary objectives. "Shoot a few looters so they get the message" could be said to be a terror tactic. There is lots of grey areas here, generally speaking it's better to have a well trained miltary and have them make these decisions, than trying second guess them.

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