Palin Vague on Terrorists

This is something that bugs me, the idea that somebody who kills people at random, who bombs a public building, is not a "terrorist" if the building happens to be an abortion clinic. There has been a lot of talk lately about one of the Presidential candidates "palling around with terrorists," and accepting that statement requires not only a certain interpretation of the term "palling around," but also a certain interpretation of the word "terrorist."

I don't expect our corporate media to actually ask a question about this sort of thing, but Brian Williams at MSNBC did. He interviewed Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin about her interpretation of the word "terrorist." Check it out (transcription from FireDog Lake).

Brian Williams: Back to the notion of terrorists and terrorism, this word has come up in relation to Mr. Ayers -- hanging out with terrorist – domestic terrorists. It is said that it gives it a vaguely post uh 9-11 hint, using that word, that we don’t normally associate with domestic crimes. Are we changing the definition? Are the people who set fire to American cities during the ‘60’s terrorists, under this definition? Is an abortion clinic bomber a terrorist under the definition?

Sarah Palin: There is no question that Bill Ayers via his own admittance was um one who sought to destroy our US Capitol and our Pentagon -- that is a domestic terrorist. There’s no question there. Now others who would want to engage in harming innocent Americans or um facilities, that uh, it would be unacceptable -- I don’t know if you could use the word terrorist, but its unacceptable and it would not be condoned of course on our watch. I don’t know if what you are asking is if I regret referring to Bill Ayers as an unrepentant domestic terrorist. I don’t regret characterizing him as that.

Brian Williams: I’m just asking what other categories you would put in there. Abortion clinic bombers? Protesters in cities where fires were started, Molotov cocktails, were thrown? People died.

Sarah Palin: I would put in that category of Bill Ayers anyone else who would seek to destroy our United States Capitol and our Pentagon and would seek to destroy innocent Americans.

Did that clarify anything for you?

The Weather Underground, which Bill Ayers belonged to, was a group back in the Sixties and Seventies who bombed some government buildings and banks, mostly in response to events in the Vietnam War. I would call them terrorists. I would also call somebody who bombs abortion clinics a terrorist, but you won't find that word in a news article, they won't be included in government terrorism statistics. I would call a rightwing militia unit sworn to fight the federal government, say to support a state's secession, a terrorist group. Some of Williams' other examples are good, too, the Sixties and Seventies saw a lot of violent demonstrations, riots, fires, the National Guard murdering American citizens, lots of crazy stuff was going on back then, including the Weather Underground's rampaging. In our vernacular, we don't usually even call the Oklahoma City bombing "terrorism," we call it a "bombing," and it is unusual to hear the perpetrators of that attack referred to as terrorists. I'm not sure that using the word makes the world any easier to understand or deal with.