Back in the 1980's gangs of hyper aggressive young adults roamed the streets of eastern cities attacking any and everyone who crossed their line of sight. The media started referring to them as "wolf packs", a term that mightily annoyed me.
The wolf is a noble and marvelous animal that kills only to eat, has very strong instincts to care for its young, and feeds and supports injured members of the group.
Someone, somewhere, must have pointed this out to the dunder heads who thought themselves so clever and the term "Wold Pack" for gangs committing violent rape, robbery, and murder was quietly dropped from the media lexicon.
The term "militants", and that ever romanticized "rebel", is now serving the same function. It glamorizes, and seems to provide a political justification for, murder and rape. Strap your self into 40 lbs. of nitro, stroll into a cafe and slaughter 50 people and the media refers to the insanity as the act of "militants". Rape 500 women and children and you are a "rebel" force. Fill a car with explosive, blow up an entire neighborhood killing dozens and you are a "militant".
Such heroic terms for mass murderers!
Such romantic titles for uncivilized barbarians who think nothing of destroying lives by the hundreds, or thousands, in some insane pursuit of some imagined goal.
Murder is murder. It is never justified by political or religious ideology. And, it must never be polished to a sheen of semi-respectability by burnishing the random act, with its random victims, as justified by a political or religious agenda.
Call it what it is. Mass murder. And those who commit it, or who condone it, or who support it, are mass murderers. There must never be a shadow of respectability to hide behind.