Sergeant Robert and Major Nidal

A military court today “>sentenced to life without parole for the intentional killing of 16 Afghan citizens in March 2012. The coincidental proximity of the decisions in the 2 cases is symbolic: Here are two men who had gone on indiscriminate killing sprees. Major Hassan’s claim to have “simply switched sides” makes the resemblance between the cases even closer, raising moral questions:

Does the fact that Hassan killed US soldiers, not citizens, make his actions less criminal?
Had Bales killed 16 Taliban fighters rather than citizens – still indiscriminately and in cold blood, would he had been sentenced differently?
Would Nidal Hassan go out and kill American citizens with the same moral conviction he expresses for killing American soldiers?

In these questions lies the definition of terrorism. Staff Sergeant Bales is sentenced by his own peers because his action is deemed criminal and an unacceptable conduct in a situation of war. His equivalents on the Taliban side would be celebrated and glorified. It’s safe to say that a pole among Talibs would reflect a mentality where the killing of as many Americans is a worthy goal. American soldiers  – I want to believe – don’t hold this view.

The indiscriminate nature of terrorism is what defines it. Egyptian generals, who now put their money on branding the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorists, should realize that the indiscriminate nature of their own actions put them under precisely the same definition. Yes, the generals are right: The brotherhood crowd, burning Coptic Churches and “>car bomb in Beirut last week.

Across the Muslim world factions wage their sectarian and religious wars through terrorism: in Pakistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Iran, Yemen – you name it. “Terrorist” in these parts is a synonym for “My enemy”, and despite the erroneous use of the word, they’re all, tragically, correct in so labeling their opponents.

The definition of terrorism in the democratic world is based on moral convictions, not sectarian stances. In his wonderful, surprisingly entertaining documentary