Everyone's a terrorist these days

In Montreux yesterday the Syrian ambassador was at pains to point out that the opposition to his master's regime were "terrorists". Well he would, wouldn't he? Not so comfortable to accept the fact that the majority of the rebel coalition are home grown citizens who, fed up with the tyrannical regime Assad heads, have taken up arms against him. Sure, there are imported "terrorists" (some might call them freedom fighters, but what's in a name? Everything actually), but they are vastly outnumbered by Syrian nationals, many of whom are probably as worried about the Al Qaida element as we in the west are.

Likewise, the Russophile prime minister of the Ukraine was quick to brand the rioters on the streets of Kiev as "terrorists". Really? Isn't it actually the case that these people (who rather worryingly come from the far right politically) are simply furious that he has ignored a large body of opinion which wants greater ties to the EU, perhaps even becoming a member one day. And whether or not they were from the far right, now the government in Ukraine has rushed through laws prohibiting almost any kind of street protest, they certainly have good grounds for registering their opposition to a state which is increasingly resembling a banana republic.

You know, I'm surprised some tory politico didn't call the post-Duggan rioters terrorists too. As it turns out it wouldn't have been far off the mark, because later evidence showed that in the main they were the lowest form of rioters: economic ones. Apparently 75% of them already had criminal records, so maybe they should indeed have been labelled "economic terrorists". It would have described them perfectly.