Trotsky and terrorism

Yesterday, I made the mistake of reading an article by Syrian opposition writer, Michel Kilu. He is an unimaginative writer and has nothing interesting to say, ever. But he was talking about terrorism and he said in passing that revolutionaries (he meant left-wing revolutionaries) used to brag about terrorism and that Trotsky wrote a book with the title of "Terrorism and Revolution". It is very clear to me that Mr. Kilu has not read that book and has a vague memory of the title. Let me first say that we anarchists have no fondness for Trotsky. His role during the crushing of the Kronstadt Rebellion is unforgivable. His commands to the Red Army at the time were horrific. But some measure of accuracy. Don't mention a book that you have not read. Kilu is talking about the book Terrorism and Communism and Trotsky was not bragging about terrorism, as Kulu suggests. It is quite the reverse. He was explaining the circumstances in which terrorism rises. And if Kilu bothered to read it, he would have read in the introduction that he was replying to Kautsky (or the renegade Kautsky as Lenin dubbed him). And the original title of the book was Dictatorship versus Democracy, and the subtitle was Terrorism and Communism. There is no bragging in Trotsky's words, and Kilu should refrain from writing about books that he has not read. Here is what Tronstky wrote, for example: "A revolutionary class which has conquered power with arms in its hands is bound to, and will, suppress, rifle in hand, all attempts to tear the power out of its hands. Where it has against it a hostile army, it will oppose to it its own army. Where it is confronted with armed conspiracy, attempt at murder, or rising, it will hurl at the heads of its enemies an unsparing penalty. Perhaps Kautsky has invented other methods? Or does he reduce the whole question to the degree of repression, and recommend in all circumstances imprisonment instead of execution?"