You not a sniper unless you have done everything that Smudge said and have a rifle that is worth more than most peoples cars.

A little late into the game, but here is something to consider.

Most occupations have their own technical jargons.  It is apparent from the preceding discussion that the word "sniper" has two meanings: one that is common usage, and one that is part of military technical jargon.

Appealing to Answers.com, or even the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of the English Language, does not give the "civilian" definition any more authority than the "military" definition.

Two people arguing over whether someone else is, or is not, a sniper, cannot possibly come to an agreement or even decide who "won" the argument, when one is using one definition and the other is using the other definition.

The only possible winners of such an argument are those who choose not to participate.

what in the nine hells has a discussion about snipers got to do with civil unrest in northern ireland ?
And yes it's a bloody good job they don't use slings as cobble stones are a favourite hand thrown ammunition. Add a sling and you've got cobble stones coming in from several streets away.
nasty.

Wonder how far you could sling a northen ireland molotov ? Also scary thought. When I was growing up people I knew were frequently sent on tours of NI - and you never knew if they were coming back or not -  bad days. So lets keep slings out of NI :-)  
Mind you living in germany the baader meinhof were also pretty active when I was a kid, wonder why all of a sudden terrorists have to be islamic ?  

The baader meinhof were a bunch of nutters who were around in germany in the 70's. I mainly remember the posters in the post office and shops with (obviously in german) most wanted on them. They were unusual in that one of them - meinhof - was a woman - I'm sure any search on dogpile will bring up a lot more than I can remember.
Possibly communist, but also probably just unpleasant individuals with a grudge against everything.
[url]http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists/baader/[/url]
this seems to tell you more than you'll ever want to know. I do remember going shopping one day and there was a policeman sat on the bonnet of his car in the pedestrianised area of the town with a sub machine gun cradled across his lap -  trust me you didn't see this often in heinsberg :-). Apparently one of the gang were being chased in the area and he was waiting for them to come down that street. The german police don't mess about.

I suppose with the general demise of marxism, which seemed to fuel the majority of terrorism in the 70's and 80's islam has taken a front seat.
But if you look at actual numbers of incidents, islamic terrorism is still fairly low. Apart from the world trade centre in the us, the greatest act of terrorism to date was by Timothy McVeigh. A home grown old fashioned anti-government terrorist.
Then of course you've got the una bomber - did fairly well for quite a long time. Then more recently there was the washington sniper. Now simply because these people aren't part of some global religious crusade, does not make them any the less terrorists.
Admittedly al-quiada have committed the single largest attack. But it's the only one to date. America's own home grown terrorists have over the years inflicted more terror in quite a large number of incidents.
I suppose I'm saying don't get too great a case of tunnel vision.
And look on the bright side, suicide bombers - by definition - only ever commit one bombing. Whereas most other terrorists manage to commit several, at least, before they are caught/shot.

Quote:


It seams to be working. Everyone wants out of Iraq now.

I really didn't mean the people there, event though they may want out now to since the government can extended a person tour over there listed time. I mean the people here in usa. It seams everyday more and more people want to just get out of there right a way. If we left know we would be doing the iraqies worse.

I won't shed any tears if the U.S. pulls out of Iraq, its not as if the terrorists have any plan of what to do once they overun a government.  Also, did anyone hear Bush's speech on what he thinks would happen if we pulled out of Iraq?  He basically believes that a domino effect will occur, staring in Iraq, and spreading to the rest of the middle-east. He then says that a radical Islamic state spreading from Spain to Indonesia will form.  Didn't we find out with Vietnam and communism that the domino effect can not happen?  We thought that communism would spread throughout the countries of southeast Asia like wildfire, and it did not.  History disagrees with Mr. Bush's reasoning.

The NVA.