Their ideology might be intellectually cowardly. But sacrificing your own life in battle against a perceived enemy is not a cowardly act. When people call the attacks cowardly, they’re talking about the attacks themselves, not the worldview of the attackers.
I think most non-LWers who refer to the attacks as cowardly mean that they were conducted against unresisting, nonmilitary, targets. The people killed couldn’t fight back (or at least weren’t expected to fight back), and attacking someone who isn’t expected to fight back is widely seen as cowardly.
In this case, of course, other aspects of the operation were hazardous to the terrorists even if they didn’t expect anyone to fight back, but I believe most people who consider the attack as cowardly are treating these aspects separately.
Their ideology might be intellectually cowardly. But sacrificing your own life in battle against a perceived enemy is not a cowardly act. When people call the attacks cowardly, they’re talking about the attacks themselves, not the worldview of the attackers.
I think most non-LWers who refer to the attacks as cowardly mean that they were conducted against unresisting, nonmilitary, targets. The people killed couldn’t fight back (or at least weren’t expected to fight back), and attacking someone who isn’t expected to fight back is widely seen as cowardly.
In this case, of course, other aspects of the operation were hazardous to the terrorists even if they didn’t expect anyone to fight back, but I believe most people who consider the attack as cowardly are treating these aspects separately.