Quote Originally Posted by shlomz View Post
For example, were Nazi SA men, during the 1920s-30s, "freedom fighters"?
To many Nazis - yes. That's the point; opinions differ according to point of view.


This whole topic gets a lot clearer if we look at the core of the interest: Is one man's illegitimately violent man doing legitimate violence in the opinion of another man?

The answer is simply yes.


Terrorism is not particularly effective in pursuit of one's objective, so all powers which have a wide-ranging repertoire that's not being suppressed by superior opposition will shun terrorism in favour of better methods.
Terrorism is proclaimed to be a "dirty" method in violent conflict, and it's being proclaimed so by those who have better means or otherwise no need for terrorism.


In the end, it's all about people being willing to pursue a political objective with violence, but lacking the ability to do so on a more sophisticated level (say, manoeuvring a tank brigade).