Terrorists and Freedom Fighters

From the opening

(C) 2002 Copyright Lidija Rangelovska. All rights reserved. This book, or any part thereof, may not be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from: Lidija Rangelovska - write to: palma@unet.com.mk or to vaknin@link.com.mk

Visit the Author Archive of Dr. Sam Vaknin in "Central Europe Review": http://www.ce- review.org/authorarchives/vakninarchive/vakninmain.html

I. Terrorists and Freedom Fighters II. Macedonia to the Macedonians III. The Black Hand IV. The Insurgents and the Swastika V. KLA - The Army of Liberation VI. Appendix: Pathological Narcissism, Group Behaviour and Terrorism VII. Appendix: The Crescent and the Cross VIII. The Author IX. About "After the Rain"

"'Unbounded' morality ultimately becomes counterproductive even in terms of the same moral principles being sought. The law of diminishing returns applies to morality." Thomas Sowell There's a story about Robespierre that has the preeminent rabble- rouser of the French Revolution leaping up from his chair as soon as he saw a mob assembling outside. "I must see which way the crowd is headed," he is reputed to have said: "For I am their leader." http://www.salon.com/tech/books/1999/11/04/newoptimism/ People who exercise violence in the pursuit of what they hold to be just causes are alternately known as "terrorists" or "freedom fighters". They all share a few common characteristics: 1. A hard core of idealists adopt a cause (in most cases, the freedom of a group of people). They base their claims on history - real or hastily concocted, on a common heritage, on a language shared by the members of the group and, most important, on hate and contempt directed at an "enemy". The latter is, almost invariably, the physical or cultural occupier of space the idealists claim as their own.

2. The loyalties and alliances of these people shift effortlessly as ever escalating means justify an ever shrinking cause. The initial burst of grandiosity inherent in every such undertaking gives way to cynical and bitter pragmatism as both enemy and people tire of the conflict. 3.

A short sample. Read the whole book

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