3 ms·

It can be an end to itself and it often is: retaliation

• thereddaikon 5y ago
  No that's still an agenda. Nobody becomes a terrorist just because. There is always a motivation and goal. You say retaliation makes it an end to itself but I give as a counter Timothy McVeigh. He was seeking revenge and sending a message. Terrorism is a tactic used to achieve a specific goal.
  • lexapro 5y ago
    But then no human behavior is and end to itself. All behavior can be described as a "tactic used to achieve a specific goal".
    • thereddaikon 5y ago
      No that's an oversimplification. I can ride a bike because I want to ride a bike. But terrorism by definition describes a type of tactic used to reach a stated goal. It is not simply killing people. That's called murder. And murder can be an end to itself. There have certainly been murderers who had a compulsion to just kill. Terrorism is killing a lot of innocent civilians in order to incite terror in a population to bend to your demands. They have an agenda and feel they are justified.