Political Science

Understanding the meaning of the term terrorism is the key to fight it with a clear eye and unprejudiced mindset. But looking at the history of the past sixty years, it seems like this task is very difficult to define terrorism from a single point of view. As Eqbal Ahmed puts it in his article Straight talk on terrorism, To begin with, terrorists change. The terrorist of yesterday is the hero of today, and the hero of yesterday becomes the terrorist of today or as Keeley, Robert V says in his article Trying to define terrorism One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter,. It is the main problem before the world leaders and the public in general. It is too difficult to define terrorism so that one definition will not be enough to categorize the term. The issue of defining terrorism is complicated as well as exhaustive. Governments wont define it because it involves a commitment to analysis, research and adherence to some basic rules and regulations. I think the criteria to describe terrorism should be based on the goal of certain actions of selected individuals or organizations. The history of terrorism before us, from 1940s to the present day, shows that there exists not one kind of terrorism but several kinds of it state terrorism, religious terrorism, criminal terrorism, political terrorism, and oppositional terrorism.

At this point of time the natural question that comes to ones mind is that why do terrorists commit such heinous and barbaric crimes The first reason is that they want to be heard. They want the world to acknowledge their demands and their grievances. It was the sole reason behind many terrorist incidents across the world, principles among them were the Palestinian attacks on Israeli properties, terror attacks in Kashmir, Chechnya, Argentina, Russia and else where. The cult of the freedom fighters is another motive behind such attacks. The will to resist oppressive governments, or to overthrow a government, sense of betrayal, anger against a particular regime can be the breeding ground for terrorism.

Now the United States has become the prime target of the terrorists, especially the Islamic brand of terrorists. In order to avoid it E. Ahmad has come up with some recommendations for the US to follow. In his opinion America has to abandon its alleged principles of double standards. America needs to be even handed with the countries that it deals with. America, in his opinion, needs not to condone the attacks of her allies but to condemn it. He advises America to avoid covert operations and low intensity warfare. In my opinion E. Ahmed has gone a little overboard to advise America on how to cope with the situation that it is facing today. He made some good points but I dont agree to all of them. I like the point where he says that America should focus on the cause of the problem and remove the root of the problem, but, as is the case, sometimes force is necessary to root out terrorism from the its breeding ground. Who wants to fight terrorists like Osama bin Laden with a bough of flower or a bucket of money

American Revolution or American War of Independence can never be justified as terrorist acts. First of all terrorism is not an ideology, it is only a destructive means to upset order and incur maximum damage to the victims. American Revolution on the other hand is a project, the project to liberate America from foreign hands. The revolutionaries had a well-established plan to install order and rule of the law of the land. Often the aim of the terrorists is to achieve narrow or short political gains by indiscriminately killing non-combatant civilians and innocent people. From any angle the American Revolution could be judged as terrorist acts.

On the other hand the Palestinian organization like Hezbollah claims to be the organization of freedom fighters as the aim of this organization is to liberate Palestine from Israel. So its natural that a comparison is drawn between American freedom fighters and so called freedom fighters of Hezbollah. As Robert V. Keeley points out the goal of Hezbollah is anarchistic and nihilistic. The action of Hezbollah can be used as a perfect example to the definition of terrorism a symbolic act designed to influence political behavior by extra normal means, entailing the use or threat of violence. The definition summarily puts Hezbollah in the domain of a terror organization.

Our current understanding of the word terrorism can be affected if we mess up just war with right to revolution. Right to revolution is a legitimate right of an individual or a collective group. It is the right which is recognized by many constitutions of the world the right to overthrow an oppressive government which acts against the common interest of the people. On the other hand Just War is a kind of theory that holds that a conflict can and ought to meet certain philosophies, criteria, and political justice. If we take Just War at its face value, it can sometimes border on terrorism in its strictest sense.