Terror and Its Apologists

In its modern manifestations, terror is the totalitarian form of war and politics. It shatters the war convention and the political code. It breaks across moral limits beyond which not further limitation seems possible. For within the categories of civilian and citizen, there is not any smaller group for which immunity might be claimed. Terrorists make no such claim anyway and they kill anyone. Despite this, terrorism has been defended, not only by the terrorists themselves, but also by philosophical apologists writing on their behalf. It is said, for example, that there is no alternative to terrorist activity if oppressed peoples are to be liberated. Those who make these arguments, I think, have lost their grip on the historical past. They suffer from a malign forgetfulness, erasing all moral distinctions with the men and women who painfully worked them out.
-- Emanuel Gross, Thwarting Terrorist Acts by Attacking the Perpetrators or Their Commanders As an Act of Self-Defense: Human Rights Versus the State's Duty to Protect Its Citizens, 15 Temp. Int'l & Comp. L.J. 195, 233 (2001).