Defining Terrorism...

I like Arend, but I never understood why states cannot be terrorists. They can certainly carry out acts "that intentionally target civilians and other noncombatants in violation of existing law relating to the conduct of hostilities." Sometimes, as Arend notes, acts of guerrilla warfare look like terrorism, but are sufficiently focused on military and governmental targets as to be legitimate warfare. Still, it seems to me that the distinction between "terrorist state" and "state sponsor of terrorism" is one which might be useful in embassies, but not so much to the rest of us.