by John Devera

Created on: May 01, 2008

Terrorism is not something new. If we define terrorism the way that United Nations does as any act "intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act," then we can easily see that terrorism is at least as old as Jewish zealots killing Roman citizens in the streets of Israel. Now, this definition may not suit everyone, because I, for instance, would also include the caveat that terrorists do not wear a uniform and hide within the general population.

So, why does terrorism exit? Historically, terrorism exists for one of three very important reasons.

1. Asymmetrical Warfare. When a group of people feel that their rights have been violated, that their land has been unjustly occupied, that their legal and rational recourse to justice has been denied, they will resort to terrorism. These people feel that they are freedom fighters, revolutionaries, guerrilla warriors. The brave men and women of the American Revolution often used terror tactics against the British, firing on unarmed civilians, destroying non-military targets, attacking under the cover of a disguise and not a uniform. The IRA has made claims for decades that they are freedom fighters struggling for the reclamation of their land, which was unjustly seized and occupied by the British (again, the British, always the British). The PLO and its various subsets claims that it is struggling for the return of its homeland appropriated by the United Nations in 1948. The Zionists who targeted the King David Hotel were fighting for a Jewish Homeland (again against the British).

The problem here is that the goal is conflated with the method. Just because the goal is admirable, and one side may feel dwarfed by the other, there is still no justification for targeting civilians. War is NOT fair, and sometimes even the good guys are outnumbered by the bad guys. But no matter how good your cause is, you become evil when you use evil methods to achieve your goal.

2. Poor Losers. Sometimes political forces lose. The Iraqi people overwhelmingly want a democratic and secular government. Fair, honest and representative elections have shown that the people of Iraq want a Western-style government. But the Sunnis who have lost their power, the outside interests who want to sow dissent, the tribal chieftains who want to carve out their power base, and religious

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