Terrorism
Terrorism by nature is difficult to define.
Acts of terrorism conjure emotional
responses in the victims as well as in
the practitioners. No two writers agree
on what is terrorism. Even the U.S.
government cannot agree on one single
definition. The old adage, "One man's
terrorist is another man's freedom
fighter" is still alive and well today
("Terrorism Research Center:
Definitions" 1). Although many people
believe that terrorism is evil, it is
merely misunderstood because there is
no set definition. Terrorist are
responsible to most of the freedom movements
in every country. Terrorist have
used violence to get their point across to
the public. These acts are often
necessary for the success of the movement or
cause. The use of this violence can
be justified in several ways. You can't
make an omelet without breaking some
eggs has been used by terrorist to
describe their actions. Terrorism has been
used by governments and against
them. It has been used as part of a campaign by
guerrillas who have
widespread support and by small groups. Terrorism has been
used in societies
where grievances can be expressed freely and where free speech
is suppressed.
In a well organized guerrilla campaign, for example, the main
goal might be
to destroy the governments military forces. The violence is
limited to acts
which will achieve that objective. This might be destroying a
factory which
is making arms, or putting out of action part of the government
army, or
bombing an airfield so that it cannot be used by government aircraft.
In
some cases, the use of terrorism appears to be a reaction to
the
disintegration of law and order. A stable society has normally evolved
peaceful
ways of keeping order and handling disputes between its members
without
violence. Once law and order breaks down, as they do in civil wars,
members of
society have to defend themselves in different ways. There may be
in a situation
where government forces are using terrorism and guerrilla
forces the same
methods in return. Other groups in society start using
violence to defend this
right and so a climate of terror emerges. What little
law and order remains is
maintained solely by the strongest groups using fear
(Freeman 43). Terrorism has
been used by groups of the right in an attempt to
uphold the established system.
In Northern Ireland Protestant extremist
groups have used terrorism against
those fighting for a united Ireland. There
have been similar groups in Italy and
Latin America Fighting for the
return to more authoritarian and conservative
forms of government. There are
many different kinds of terrorism, this makes
defining the word difficult.
Guerrilla warfare is used in most revolutions and
is a form of terrorism,
whether it is indiscriminate terrorism (example: the
bombing of a public
places) or terrorism aimed only upon the government.
Terrorism can also
be used by a government to control its people. War between
countries is a
place were terrorism is used immensely in order to strike fear
into an enemy
(The Encyclopedia America 523). Terrorism is often a weapon of
last resort.
Most revolutions began as guerrilla terrorism. The American
Revolution
started out as terrorist acts against England. The "Boston Tea
Party" is
a prime example of terrorism. Colonial revolutionaries sneaked
aboard an
English Tea Merchant Ships, where they threw hundreds if not thousands
of
dollars worth of tea into the Atlantic Ocean. Americans today think of
that
incident as a stride to freedom, but the English look at it as the
beginning of
countless terrorist acts. The Law and Order Maintenance Act of
1962 in Rhodesia
(now Zimbabwe) included among its definitions of terrorist
as anyone who went on
strike if an essential service was put at risk as a
result. These strikes led to
the revolution of the Zimbabwe people from the
Rhodesia (English) government
(Freeman 21). In South Africa, the burning of
the Identification cards and the
bombing of several military bases by the
A.N.C. (African National Congress) was
the beginning of an independence
movement against the Afrikaners. Terrorism is
often the start of a revolution
that makes the country and even the world a
better place. The IRA (Irish
Republican Army) would argue that they too are
fighting a colonial
government, the British government, which is continuing to
occupy part of
Ireland (Freeman 41). One of the most important duties of any
government is
to maintain law and order. It usually does this through a system
of laws
which are enforced by a police force ("Terrorism Research
Center:
Information Terrorism" 3). In democratic countries, these laws
are drawn up
and approved by representatives of the people as a whole. These
conditions are
not common in the modern world. In all too many places basic
human rights are
suppressed. The laws are made by a minority, sometimes with
no pretence of
discussion at all. The most extreme form of government
terrorism is what people
might call a "reign of terror." This phrase was
first used in the
French Revolution, during which the Revolutionary
Tribunal sent increasing
numbers of the people to their death (1793-1794). As
panic and tension built up,
terror was the order of the day. Any suspected
"enemy of the people"
(persons against the revolution) could be round up and
often ended their life
under the guillotine. Maximilien Robespierre, the
leading figure of the
Revolutionary Government, believed that terror
could be used to create a new
"Republic of Virtue." The "enemies of the
people" were
sacrificed to protect others who might follow their example
(Freeman 13). The
government of the former Soviet Union used terrorism mainly
through wide-ranging
laws which enabled it to pick up opponents on charges
such as spreading
"anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda" and
"disseminating
fabrications known to be false which defame the Soviet state
and social
system". The combination of vague laws with the possibility of
detention
without trial is one of the commonest forms of government
terrorism. This form
helps keep the people from revolting during drastic
times of government trouble
such as war recovery and financial difficulties.
Many anti-terrorists today
believe that the governments of today and
yesteryear have used terrorism during
wars. These acts can be the bombing of
a city, an assassination, even the threat
of a new deadlier weapon. Between
1936 and 1939 Spain was revenged by a bitter
civil war. The Republican
government had been faced with a right-wing
nationalist uprising, which had
received support from the Fascist governments of
Germany and Italy.
Guernica a small town in the Basque region of Spain
(Republican government
territory), was saturation bombed by German planes. The
center of the town
was left in flames and perhaps a thousand civilians were
killed. This marked
a new phase in war - the indiscriminate bombing of a
civilian populous
(Freeman 7). The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the
United States
were acts of terrorism. Admiral William D. Leahy, Chief of Staff
to the
President Truman, remarked: "My own feeling was that in being the
first to
use it we had adopted the ethical standards common to barbarians in the
dark
ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion." The atomic bombs
used by
the American Armed Forces struck fear into every nation on every
continent.
The beginning of the Cold War was a direct cause of this
"terrorism" (Freeman
8). Some people have argued that terrorism has a
simple cause. It is a weapon
of the poor against the rich, of the oppressed
against the oppressor. It only
occurs when there is a grievance that cannot be
voiced in any other way.
Looking back at the sort of situations in which
terrorism has been used
against governments, we can see that a simple defination
is not enough. Also,
there are so many cases of oppression and poverty where
terrorism has not
been used. Terrorism has been used by separatist movements,
who wish to form
an independent nation by breaking away from the current
government. One of
the best-known is ETA, a Basque nationalist movement which
wishes to
establish a separate Basque state in northern Spain and souther
France.
ETA has carried out a long campaign which has included the assassination
of a
Spanish Prime Minister, and the leaving of bombs in Spain's tourist
resorts.
The gunmen who occupied the Iranian Embassy in London were also
separatists.
They wanted greater independence for the province of Khuzistan.
In
Holland in 1975 a group hijacked a train as part of a campaign for the
greater
independence movement of South Moluccan Islands in Indonesia. In
QuÁbec in 1970
the Front de la LibÁration de QuÁbec carried out kidnappings
and a murder on
behalf of independence for French-speaking Quebec. Separatist
movements have
been a common source of terrorist attacks. The word terrorism
has many
definitions. Several of the meanings depict all terrorists as evil
villains that
love death. Others make terrorists out of almost everyone. The
multitudes of
meanings even makes the practitioners contemplate if they are
terrorist or not.
Terrorist have actually made the earth into a better
place; terrorist acts have
brought good changes to countries they have
stopped thousands of unnecessary
deaths, and have even stopped wars. The
reign of the bomb wielding maniac is
over they have been misunderstood from
the beginning, the era of the
misconceived over zealous radicals has
begun.
Bibliography
London: Batsford Academic and Educational
Limited, 1983. Thomas, Benjamin.
"Terrorism." The Encyclopedia America
International Edition. Vol. 26.
1995 ed. The Terrorism Research Center:
Definitions. {Online} Available
http://terrorism.com/terrorism/def.html.
The Terrorism Research Center:
Information Terrorism. {Online} Available
http://terrorism.com/terrorism/itpaper.html.