Quote:
Originally posted by Jimbo
A significant amount of the terrorism that occured in the 60s through the mid 90s was not part of an insurgency. N17 in Greece, M19 in Colombia, Baader-Minehoff in Germany, ETA in Spain, IRA in Ireland, etc... Those are just off the top of my head. I don't think any of those groups made an effort to control territory beyond a few city-blocks at a time.
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Terrorism, as a strategy (i.e. an end in itself), is called nihilism. The Aun Shinrikyo comes to mind. So do numerous 19th century Russian revolutionaries, such as Chernychevsky and his cronies.
But some of the groups you mention above do have some end-state other than total destruction, they just vary as to the means of achieving them. Recall that Marxism advocated spreading by "spontaneous uprisings." Although Lenin, pulling from others, eventually took a more organized approach to revolution, pure Marxism essentially said that there was a great tension in the working class, and there would be some event that would eventually catalyze the tension into spontaneous revolution. Much of the terrorism of the 60's was this kind of Marxist groping - attacks meant to put a spark to the tinder of working class tension (that didn't turn out to be there). As long as the group has a coherent ideological objective, whether or not holding ground is their goal seems to me a relative inessential for the purposes of classification - at least at the macro level.
IMO, the appropriate classification is by the end-state the group wants to bring about. If it is destruction for its own sake, then I think "nihilistic terrorist organization" is the appropriate category. If it is the recapture of land and elimination of a physical enemy (e.g. - the IRA), then I think some political description is appropriate. If it is to bring the world into Dar al Islam at the edge of the sword, forcing all to submit to Allah's will (as interpreted through the gang of priests that want to see all of this brought about), then I think "militant Islamic terrorism" is the right category. The end state a group is seeking is the best key to understanding their motives, what tactics they are likely to employ and against which targets. The ideology is the key to understanding the end state.