Terrorists or Resistance Fighters: America’s Dilemma in Iraq

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_by_geral_060315_terrorists_or_resist.htm

by By Gerald Rellick

http://www.opednews.com


"Hitler's decisions had ceased to have anything in common with the principles of strategy and operations as they were recognized for generations past. They were the product of a violent nature following its impulses, which recognized no limits to possibility and which made its wish-dreams the father of its acts.”

--Gen. Franz Halder, Chief of the German General Staff, 1944


In his latest book, “Hegemony or Survival,” Noam Chomsky raises provocative questions about America’s role in the world, and not just in our current crisis in the reign of Bush II. Ever since World War II America has assumed the role of the world’s super power, particularly so after the fall of the Soviet Union.

One critical question he raises is the difference between terrorism and resistance.

During World War II, after German occupation of Europe was complete, there arose underground resistance movements. Prominent among these were the French and the Norwegians. When I was in high school in the 1950’s I was a World War II buff. After all, the war was not long over and many men in our small community, including my father and his three brothers all fought in WWII.

Many have disparaged the French resistance as too few in number and ineffectual. But while in high school I recall reading a story of a husband and wife in the French resistance. One day they were in a café when the Gestapo stormed in, guns drawn, and advanced toward their table. The husband pulled out his pistol, shot his wife in the head and then killed himself. They knew the end was at hand and that before death there would be torture. It took incredible courage to do that. That was 40 years ago and I have never forgotten that story. When your homeland is occupied by foreign troops, extraordinary courage seems to come naturally. snip

Anther story I recall vividly from those same high school days was that of the Norwegian resistance discovering a traitor amongst them, a man who had given over names of the resistance to the Nazis. He was confronted by the resistance in his home with his family. They tied him to a chair and then summarily executed his wife and three children in front of his eyes, and he was allowed to go free, to live whatever life was possible for him.

So, what defines terrorism? Was this terrorism? Or was it resistance against an occupying force?