Justifying Terrorism?

by Jerry Cates

On Google.com, alone, a total of 20,400 articles could be found on August 25, 2002 that contained the key words "Justifying Terrorism." Later, on May 12, 2003, that number had increased to 29,600; on November 9, 2003, it totalled 50,600, and by June 19, 2004, it stood at nearly 60,000. More recently, on August 3, 2008, the number had ballooned to 3,730,000. By August 25 that number had increased 60,000 to 3,790,000, suggesting more than 2,700 links are being added every day. 

A survey of some of the links relating to the justification of terrorism shows that almost every religious body and school of higher learning has published something on this subject. Many have organized committees and created institutes bringing together their "best" minds to research what causes terrorism in hopes of finding ways to deal with it.

Good... The world does need to get a grip on it. For the moment, however, this article will concentrate on one central point:  governments built on a foundation of terror never succeed. In fact, though not all do, most fail quickly. I shall have more to say on this later, but suffice it to say that terrorism, a method of redress that humans have tried since time began, is ingrained in the human psyche. One thing is clear: we, as a people, do not want to be guilty of using terror as a means of furthering any of our aims. 

The way humans look at terrorism seems to vary most depending on where they sit. When terrorism strikes them directly, they recognize at once what it is. A few historical personages, among them Atilla the Hun and Genghis Khan, considered terrorism a legitimate form of warfare, and we tend to think, today, that such barbarism stopped with them, yet the most sophisticated people of the 18th century, the French pedestrians of that day, proudly proclaimed terror as the currency with which they waged war against the tyranny of the French monarchy. They were so good at it that Jay Winik, in his recent book "The Great Upheaval," suggests their behavior was used by Adolf Hitler, 150 years later, as a model for the holocaust he conducted against the Jews.

In the West, at least today, we presume ourselves to have advanced beyond such primitive modes of behavior, yet, we have practiced it in the past and many western peoples practice terrorism today, though it is rare to do so openly. It is necessary to disguise their terroristic actions to make it acceptable. We know this as cognitive dissonance. Has this species of cognitive dissonance infected us, as a people? The honest answer to that is not a trivial matter to me. It should be of great interest to all who seek the truth.

Terrorism, no matter who the perpetrator may be, is a destructive practice that never builds up. Terrorists use violence as a substitute for the political process, diverting a region's entire economic resources to promote their cause, neglecting development, and leaving widespread ignorance, famine and poverty in their wake.

Terrorism is impotent as a means of redressing wrongs or of preventing fanatics from carrying out their objectives. Terrorism cannot be judged on moral grounds. There is no such thing as progressive terrorism. Because terrorism is an act of tyranny and coercion, and uses terror to generate power and submission, it can never, under any circumstances whatever, be justified.

America ... Bugsinthenews