When Is a Terrorist Not A Terrorist?

Let's say there's a guy, and we knew he planned the bombing of a plane which killed 73 people. And let's say this same guy helped plan the bombing of a series of tourist hostels, which killed someone. We would consider this guy a terrorist, no? We would want him to face justice, right?

That guy is Luis Posada Carriles, and no we don't consider him a terrorist> Actually, we are preventing him from facing Justice.

Q: Why would we do that?

A: Because his victims were Cubans.

Posada, among other nefarious deeds, helped plan the bombing of Cuban Flight 455 in 1976 which killed 73 (by the way, the U.S. knew in advance the bombing would take place) people and the bombing of three Havana hotels in 1997 which killed an Italian tourist. He escaped from a Venezuelan prison in the 80's, was imprisoned in Panama for trying to assassinate Castro in 2000 only to be pardoned by the outgoing president in 2004. He sought asylum in the United States, which has been holding this psychopath for entering the country illegally, but has refused to extradite him back to Venezuela.

But isn't a terrorist a terrorist? Why the sudden nuance? And a bigger question is raised. If terrorism is used for caused you agree with, then is it still terrorism? Republican Senator Mel Martinez does not think so. According to him, “If Luis Posada Carriles bombed an airliner, without condoning any specific act of violence, there was a hostile state of affairs at the time...We need to talk about the future, not the past.”

Oh, reaaaallly?

So, if a country or entity, let's say, oh I don't know, AL QAEDA?, asserts that there is a “hostile state of affairs” with us, then suddenly bombing planes out of the sky is A-OK? Isn't that exactly what they did assert? And since it's been five years since 9/11, using Martinez' logic, shouldn't we just move on, because after all, it happened in the past?

Well, Senator Martinez, thanks for giving Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and any other countries 'hostile' towards us the green light to engage in terrorism. And yes, Senator Martinez, by not coming out strongly against Posada's terrorism, you are condoning it, regardless of your pathetic attempt at denial.

It's amazing to me that all of our supposed ideals go out the window when it comes to a completely harmless regime in the Caribbean and and the entire nation's foreign policy gets hijacked by its vocal enemies in Miami.