Comment by LorenPechtel
1 month ago
Suicide bombers don't make it terrorism.
Were the Japanese Kamikaze pilots terrorists? No--their targets were clearly military in nature. Likewise, was the US pilot that kamikaed a terrorist? No. (His plane had no hope of making it back to the carrier, he could have bailed out but the only possible rescue would be from the very fleet he was attacking. No path with a meaningful chance of survival, as soldiers in hopeless situations often do he chose to take as many enemies with him as he could.)
Terrorism is about the target, not the means.
The point was regarding how to ascertain a population had been deeply propagandized and radicalized and tell them apart from others. Terrorism is, as you point out, not necessarily relevant to that.
The example of kamikaze pilots also works like suicide bombers to distinguish different groups on those terms.
All in all, what you’ve written has the sense of a rebuttal but is acting as support for my point.