Did I miss the point of terrorism?

[Pix]

This:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/19/world/asia...topstories

The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the act, but they didn't appear to have anticipated the level of revulsion and condemnation that it would provoke. Thousands of people joined in rallies across Pakistan in support of the wounded teen, and calls grew for a strong response from the government.

As coverage of the shooting -- and the appalled reaction to it -- swept across the Pakistani and international news media, the Taliban began issuing lengthy statements trying to justify the targeting of Malala, who had defied them by insisting on the right of girls to go to school.

Reporters in northwestern Pakistan, the region where the Taliban are active, say they have been alerted by authorities of an increased risk to their security and some of them have received warnings that they are being specifically targeted.

"Things after Malala have become more tense, as the Taliban is very angry with the way the attack was reported," said a veteran journalist in Peshawar, the main city in the restive northwestern region near the border with Afghanistan. "We are scared, but what can we do? We have to work."

They shot a girl in the head. Even plenty of criminal syndicates will avoid that if they fear it will turn the public against them (especially in cases where the syndicates are seen as a lesser evil to the government & police which is often the case in ethnic neighborhoods). A key component of most hate propaganda is to show how the enemies threaten the children (while downplaying their own threat to children). So to me I'd think it's clear they don't give a damn what people think (after all, they're proud to have religion to tell them how to be moral, not a godless, secular society that values girls as human beings).

More to the point I thought the point of terrorism (or terror tactics like this anyway) was to win through fear, not popularity (the old, "It's better to be feared than to be loved"). That is, great condemnation means not only revulsion but also fear of sending their own beloved girls to school or allowing them to act out as their victim did. So as long as there's fear along with the revulsion (and the revulsion makes the story spread, and with it the fear that they use) then shouldn't it be a GOOD thing from their perspective? :confused:

[Miles]

Oh how dare the filthy godless media pass judgment on these psychotic fucks. You're right Pix, you'd think they'd welcome the attention and the fear that would spread with it...

Here's another article about another girl who was also shot in the attack:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/17/world/asia...index.html

All they want is an education, to be respected as human beings. Guess that's too much for the Tiny Tali-whackers to handle.

[Marc]

The poor girl is currently in hospital in Birmingham making a slow recovery.
The United Kingdom has her problems, but we show compassion and help when it is needed.

[ceez]

The people in the middle east are finaly coming to their senses, I've even heard of a couple towns arming themselvs and driving the taliban out of their town.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

The Taliban is not just a terrorist organization, it is also political and works every way it can to get and hold that political power.

As such they are not going to use 'just terror' to get where they want to be.

Lets take a page from History. The Catholic Church relied on several tactics, including the inquisition (terrorist activity - using fear to manipulate people), but on the flip side also did 'nice' things to win over some people.

The Nazis did it as well - there is always two sides to the coin. While the Church wrote history thus downplayed its terrorism and history was Written by others when it came to the Nazis thus up-played the terrorism side of things - both used all forms of activities to win hearts through fear and through popularity.

Currently the media and Government(s) are painting the Taliban as a 'terrorist' (only) organization, they dislike focusing on anything 'good' or remotely popular the Taliban might do.

Good luck finding a list of good. Its not because the Taliban hasn't done any good, its because politics and media are painting a picture of pure evil of this organization.

http://www.crethiplethi.com/what-about-t...iban/2009/ might enlighten a little some of the good.

It is a political force and it will use any and all tools in an arsenal to 'win' followers. Yes it is as much a popularity contest as it is one of spreading fear.