David Cromwell

The trick here is arbitrary word assignment: that is, any violence engaged in by ourselves or our friends is ipso facto retaliation and counter-terrorism; whatever the enemy does is terrorism, irrespective of facts._10 We might say, then, that the golden rule of state violence is: terrorism is what they do, and counter-terrorism is what we do. As Orwell himself observed in his essay, __otes on Nationalism_: __ctions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage _ torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians _ which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by __ur_ side.