Whether or not the act of flying a plane into the FBI/IRS building qualifies as a terrorist act depends entirely upon whether the man's intent was to invoke terror in the populace, rather than simply to kill a few people on his way off the mortal coil. And it doesn't matter. His act is neither more nor less reprehensible because of his motivations for committing it.
This. I like this right here. Terrorism must target the
populace, rather than a government or military force.
Is it terrorism if his intent was to create fear in entrenched government bureaucracy, such as the IRS?
Also, I got to thinking about a couple of the WWII bombings: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden and Baghdad.
Was the nuclear shock & awe of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, terrorism? Its intent was to scare the populace and coerce a different behavior out of them.
Was the fire bombing of Dresden, terrorism? Dresden was a manufacturing center so arguably it was not intended to scare the Germans.
What about Bush 43's "shock and awe" of Baghdad? That was deliberately named as such. Most targets were military or police targets in Baghdad, but the deliberate intent was "shock and awe."
