Many writers believe that the targeting of “innocents” is a key component of terrorism. Douglas Lackey writes, “…the common soldier is not a terrorist, because the majority of his victims are soldiers, and a minority of his victims are civilians.” All bombs kill things in their target radius regardless of military status; they are indiscriminate by nature. Lackey goes on to argue that what makes a bombing campaign constitute indiscriminate killing is the targeting of an area with a high ratio of non-military units to military units.
A second controversy is that of circumstance; that is, [color=red]whether or not terrorist acts must be performed in times of peace, or if [color=blue]they can include acts perpetrated during war.
Could someone please explain the bold part?