Terror and peace are both relative terms: Who is to decide?

One man's terrorist is the other man's freedom fighter, and one man's peace may be the other man's threat.

Terror and peace, both two commonly used words, especially in the context of the Middle East and Sri Lanka. But as widely as they are used, the more relative and complicated they have become.

Everyone has heard of the phrase that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, yet somehow, the West is quite disaffectionate to the feelings of millions of Lebanese and millions of Palestinians and millions of Tamils, who view Hezbollah, Hamas, and the LTTE respectively, as organizations that represent them and as organizations that are pioneers of their cause. The fact is that, these same people, see the other side as the terorrist, their only fault is they do not have the power of declaring the other as the terrorist-- they do not have the power of sovereignty. For them, Israel, the U.S. and the Sri Lankan government are terrorists that are killing their people and are politically aiming to throw them to the peripheries of the negotiating table, by labelling them as 'terrorists'and thus a party not to be reckoned with.

In sum, the term terrorist is quite relative, and no one can state that the other is a terrorist with total unanimity.

The same situation appears to be the case for the word 'peace.' Each side claims that they want peace, the U.S. and its self-proclaimed duty to 'civilize' the world and bring democracy to the Middle East will bring peace, along with Israel's attempt to attain peace by engaging in 'self-defense,' and the building of a security-wall along all Palestinian territory to deter the 'suicide-bombers' from penetrating into Israel, the destruction of Hezbollah, and the Sri Lankan government's 'limited operation' of violence against the LTTE will lead to peace.

For the opposite side, peace is absolutely different. For the Tamils, negotiation has come to an end, Sri Lanka's Sinhalese are unable to treat the Tamils with equality so a separate state or a sovereign province for Tamils would be an ideal situation for peace. For the Palestinians and Lebanese, the situation for peace would be the dismantling of the Zionist ideology and a state where everyone can live together with no racism, with no wall in Palestine, and with no Israeli occupation and intrusion in Lebanon.

Clearly, terror and peace mean two different things for two different set of people. If people want peace, they have to attain it by negotiating between the two radically different views of peace, and stop clinginig to name-calling and labeling the other as a terrorist, because if we all just call the other a terorrist and say we want peace, and think we are thinking of the same thing, we are not going to achieve anything, and will only end up fooling ourselves.