Can Terrorism Ever Be Justified?

An indefensible act that targets and kills civilians is generally accepted as “terrorism”. When a country is at war, it is prepared to withstand the enemy and lose lives. However, terrorism is different in that it terrorizes everybody and creates in its wake chaos and retreat regardless of race, nationality or religion. Such atrocity is hard to condone whatever its justification might be. The US attacks in Iraq have killed many times more civilians than the intended enemy. From the American standpoint, civilian casualty was not their objective but if it meant the flushing out of those they termed as terrorists then it was justifiable and the damage to civilians would be termed as collateral damage. However, ask the innocent Iraqi civilian who lost his entire family as part of the collateral damage and he would term it as terrorism.

Killing innocent children, destroying property, blowing up religious places can never be condoned. Justifying terrorism means justifying the butchery of innocent lives. Terrorists justify bombing as a necessary act in their struggle to uphold their beliefs while the victims of bombing call it as an act of a coward, an act of a man who has sold his soul. Man created religion and not the other way around and as long as we still value human life, justifying innocent slaughter would only suggest valuing religious andpolitical priorities way higher than a man’s life. Nothing can condone the seizing of hostages, the killing of innocent lives and the exploding of homes and public property.

To justify terrorism equals justifying innocent slaughter. What kind of aggression finds appeasement in the taking of innocent lives? Such aggressive behavior can never be condoned regardless of its cause. Terrorism can never be justified.