Freedom Fighters

Much like the term terrorist, the term freedom fighter means many things to different people. This is why trying to define or classify freedom fighter to everyone's satisfaction proves nearly impossible: thus the adage, “One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.” According to that logic, one could theoretically label Yasir Arafat a freedom fighter and George Washington a terrorist. While it is conceivable that comparing the first president of the Palestinian Authority with the first president of the United States might not raise eyebrows by the 22nd century, for now the comparison is problematic.

Freedom fighters and terrorists can be distinguished from each other by taking into consideration the targets of their operations. Freedom fighters predominantly concentrate on military targets, whereas terrorists deliberately target civilians; for terrorists, inspiring fear in a general population is as [Page 144]important as, if not more important than, the particular individuals killed ...