Research Essay: Can Terrorism Ever Be Justified?

1685 Words4 Pages

Research Essay: Can Terrorism Ever Be Justified?

“One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.“ This is a popular quote regarding the state of terrorism, and how certain people may consider terrorism justifiable.

Justifying terrorism is, however, not different from justifying innocent slaughter. Justifying innocent slaughter suggests that terrorists believe that political or religious conflicts are more prominent than a segment of typically uninvolved humans. Not only does terrorism cause deaths, but it also negatively affects a country’s economy and religion. Terrorism causes more problems rather than “solving” problems terrorists may have.

The first reason for asserting that terrorism cannot be justified is the slaughter of innocent people, which isn’t moral. Whether people uninvolved are killed isn‘t a concern to terrorists. Terrorism ignores the lives of many people completely and this directly conflicts with people who are close to those who have died in an accident due to terrorism. This is a reason why terrorism is atrocious and shouldn’t be justified.

This act of slaughter violates human rights says Igor Primoratz of Arena Magazine, “Human beings are to be respected as holders of rights, which circumscribe a

Fam 2

certain area of freedom, thereby both acknowledging and protecting personhood. The terrorist can't show this type of respect. For if you have any basic rights at all, surely the right not to be killed or maimed for a terrorist cause is one of them” (4). Each human needs respect and their own rights and terrorism obliterates those two basic principles. Treating human lives as a means to an end is hardly the proper way to go around things, and that is one of the largest consequences of terro...

... middle of paper ...

...d 50,000 casualties (Effective human rights work is the best weapon against terrorism). There are nonviolent ways of dealing with oppression, following Gandhi’s example, and even the Boston Tea Party which brought changes with little violence. This Chechen conflict has been on-going for over 200 years, and unfortunately terrorist leaders continue to think terrorism will advance their cause even after much time has passed (Dershowitz 166).

More often than not, terrorism hurts people, the economy, and religion. This is evident in many cases throughout history. Ultimately, terrorism isn’t a means to an end, and the sacrifices for success are too great. Many terrorists aren’t able to accomplish their ill-minded goals, and people’s lives and businesses and beliefs among other factors will completely be in vain. To this end, it seems like terrorism cannot be justified.

More about Research Essay: Can Terrorism Ever Be Justified?

Open Document