Ukrainians: terrorists or freedom fighters?

When innocent people are killed by the invading army, the preferred label is usually militants or combatants

When 9/11 happened, I was a teenage student. I did not know about the existence of terrorism before that. There had been bomb blasts in Pakistan but they were usually labeled as such. Terrorism became a household word after 9/11, not for the right reasons though. Ironically, despite being a repeated term and even picked up by Hollywood and pop culture, the definition of it remained quite obscure. This, however, was by design because the disturbing and unwanted definition of terrorism defogged the identity of who the terrorist really was. And that conclusion was never allowed in mainstream media.

I came of age in the years after 9/11. From what I have observed, there have been two broad understandings of terrorism: the definition of terrorism and the picture of it. The definition goes something like “the calculated use of violence to achieve goals that are political, ideological, and religious”. By applying that definition, the US, the UK Israel, India, and so forth stand out as the leading terrorist states in the world. Since that conclusion was bad for the sound bite, the more kosher understanding of terrorism was gravitated toward, which is the picture of it. The picture contains bearded men with rifles and knives or as Hollywood depicts them as angry Muslim men reciting Holy verses before blowing themselves up against foreign soldiers on their land who are busy in some great act of kindness such as giving flowers and food bags to a thankful crowd.

This latter understanding of terrorism has been deeply internalised by subliminal perception. Furthermore, an extension of that internalised understanding has been that in invading Afghanistan and Iraq, the sole American purpose was defending the homeland and giving rights to the local citizenry.

Today, Ukraine is a Russian-invaded country. Putin too claims to be going into Ukraine to protect his country’s legitimate security concerns owing to Ukraine’s possible Nato membership. Putin is also supporting local pro-Russian groups just as the US supported the Northern Alliance of Afghanistan. Putin may be exaggerating or lying about the threat in Ukraine just as the US and the UK lied about the WMDs in Iraq. Ukrainian fighters are grabbing their arms and fighting against the invaders just as the Taliban as well as the fighters of Moktada al Sadr and Baathhists did following the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq respectively.

Here is the confusion many, like myself, can run into. I have been taught through decades of media punditry, newspaper articles, books, and so forth that when a country invades another country we must buy the justification that the attacking country did it for its own security, that the invaded people grabbing arms against the invaders are insurgents, hostile elements, or better yet, the label for all seasons; terrorists. When innocent people are killed by the invading army, the preferred label is usually suspected militants or enemy combatants even if the dead include children.

Again, this cognizance comes from consuming western journalism. Today, my simple question from the West is: can I apply the same understanding of terrorism, which would label the Ukrainians as terrorists or should I apply that obscure definition of terrorism, which would make the Russians as well as the Western society the leading terrorists? Last time I checked, that conclusion wasn’t allowed. Conversely, if the West was fighting a war against terrorism, then is Russia also fighting a war against terrorism? If this, however, is aggression, then why weren’t the American invasions acts of aggression too? Where do you draw the line?

Either the Ukrainians are terrorists just as the Taliban, Iraqis, Kashmiris, and Palestinians or the Taliban, Iraqis, Kashmiris, and Palestinians are freedom fighters just as the Ukrainians. They are either the terrorists or they are the freedom fighters. Similarly, the Russians are either liberators and democracy promoters like the West or else they are the aggressors, like the West.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2022.

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