there's been a bit of i-told-you-so-ism surrounding the assassination of dr. george tiller. about two months ago, the department of homeland security issued a report (pdf) about the threat of violent rightwing extremism in the u.s. right blogistan flipped out about the report, claiming that that obama administration was criminalizing dissent.
as it happens, the next terrorist attack in the u.s. happened to be just the sort of thing the DHS was warning against in its report. thus, we have the i told you sos.
don't get me wrong, i think the "i told you so" is pretty well deserved this time around. when the kerfuffle first broke, the funniest thing was how so many conservatives thought that a report about violent rightwing groups was talking about them. but the problem is that, even after the tiller assassination, there's really zero chance that most rightwing bloggers will see this as terrorism. it seems pretty clear that it fits the definition and there's no serious question that if some muslim had gunned down a rabbi, the malkins of the world would be the first to pounce on the T-word.
for a lot of people, it's not "terrorism" unless an arab or muslim is involved. i've long noticed that violence regularly get called "terrorism" when an arab or muslim does it, even when the attack wouldn't be called "terrorism" if anyone else did it (e.g. attacks on soldiers in iraq, afghanistan, the west bank, etc. notwithstanding the fact that "terrorism" means attacks on civilian targets) likewise, attacks against arabs or muslims by non-arabs/muslims are usually not called "terrorism" even if it would otherwise fit the definition of the term (e.g. attacks by israeli settlers on palestinians). there's also a lot of cases where the definition of "terrorism" wouldn't normally apply, but gets applied anyway simply because arabs or muslims are involved (e.g. military forces generally are excluded from the definition of "terrorists"--when an army attacks civilians it is a war crime, not terrorism. and yet, the revolutionary guard was labeled a "terrorist organization" by the u.s. even though it is an official part of the iranian armed forces).
the abuse of the definition of terrorism has long been one of my pet issues. but for a lot of the country, the damage is pretty much done. when someone is kidnapped in mexico city, it's a kidnapping. when someone is kidnapped in iraq, it's terrorism. in that context, it is inconceivable for some people to imagine that killing an abortion doctor by a white christian has anything to do with "terrorism."
