Second Post in 2 days?

I was supposed to start tutoring a small group of high schoolers in math this afternoon. So I decided to get some much needed grocery shopping done in the morning so I wouldn't show up to my first day teaching hungry. But while shopping I got a call letting me know that I would actually start teaching on Sunday instead. So I was able to eat a leisurely lunch and do some homework before heading to campus for class.

In my Historiography class today we, we were discussing labeling different organizations as Terrorist Organizations. It was certainly lively. The author of the chapter we read talked about how current definitions of terrorism pretty much exclude State Terror. This lead to a point in which pretty much every militant organization and national government was classified as a terrorist organization, and if everyone is a terrorist, then no one is. But the main point was that the label "terrorist" prevents proper study of the organization because it has already had a black label attached to it and makes it nearly impossible for any government to negotiate with it. This is true to an extent but when dealing with terrorist organizations, their intent is very important when discussing negotiations. The British Government was finally able to negotiate a peace (however shaky) with the IRA and Sinn Fein once they were willing to compromise and negotiate (and once the British government got past their stigma as terrorists and was willing to negotiate with them). Israel was only able to negotiate with the PLO once is rejected violence and accepted negotiations as the path to their goals (at least publicly). However, before they did so, they were committed to Israel's destruction, in 1964 when the PLO was founded, they would never have negotiated with Israel because their main goal was to destroy Israel. While negotiating with "terrorist organizations" like the IRA and ANC has become an accepted position among the Left, it is often forgotten that groups like Hamas and Hizbullah are themselves uninterested in negotiations. It may be that one day they will change their tune (however unlikely) but until then, comparing them to other reformed groups is inappropriate and wrong.

When I got home today I submitted my final applications for Ph.D. programs. Huge load off my mind! Now I just have to sit back, relax and wait for the responses. Not nerve-wracking at all! I went outside and ran around with Shoko for a while just to clear my head.