Aus, implicit in your statement is the suggestion that these groups are not terrorists and we merely call them that...I am hard pressed to figure out what you would consider terrorists if not a group that abducts innocent civilians and saws off their heads on video...As for Nelson Mandela...the ANC was a terrorist group. The fact that it was fighting for freedom from the South African apartheid system does not change the fact that the ANC under Mandela employed terrorist tactics...Things have changed and so perhaps removal of Mandela from the terrorist watch list is appropriate but his initial inclusion was similarly appropriate.

Oh, and for the record. I did NOT say the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with terrorism. Nice attempt to distort what I said. For the reading comprehension impaired, what I said was I have repeatedly said the primarly focus of the Iraq invasion was the Saudi government and our desire to get the Saudis to do something about their own domestic funding of terrorism. Ridding the world of terrorists was never the goal of the invasion as such is frankly an impossible goal. Addressing a specific aspect of terrorist funding in reference to the Saudis was a goal...a largely successful one I might add.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that when Aus said "different groups we call terrorist." he meant as opposed to other terrorist groups we don't call terrorists.

DAx, I think who is a terrorist will depend on who we are.
I am not sure that Lawmage will have the same list as mine but I would agree that they include If we accept this as the only terrorist than there were no terrorist before the invention of video.

To me terrorist would inclde such diverse groups as the Basque separatist in Spain, the Tamals in Sikalanka, the New People's Army in the Philippines, the various rebels groups in Columbia and the rest of South America,Mao rebels in many countries and many Islamic groups in the Middle East. They are all outside the government and aim at forcing a change in government policy or even the government itself.Many of them will one day become the government.

Other groups supported by governments such as the Israeli hit squads,The various groups supported by the government of Sudan and the terror groups of Mugabee in Zimnbawee are also terror groups.

No war against terror will get rid of these groups. Even if it did by reducing the support for the Al.Qaeda in Saudi Arabia it will not stop them emerging again in some other place and time.