Terrorism and just war theory: examining al-Qaeda's justifications

¶ … Terrorism Justified?

According to Purpura (2007), terrorism as a term does not have a fixed definition. This effectively means that its usage and application is largely hinged on a myriad of viewpoints, be they political or religious. In this text, I concern myself with terrorism; its justification, usage and application.

The Use of Terrorism by Powerful Governments to Delegitimize Less Powerful Governments

Though terrorism cannot be seen to be a wholly biased term formulated by powerful governments solely to delegitimize those states having insignificant political or economic clout, there are instances where governments at a national level utilize terror so as to advance a well defined agenda. It therefore follows that though in most cases it is the "non-state actors" who are blamed for terror, powerful governments also utilize terror to stifle dissent or further diplomatic efforts as well as state policies abroad.

Terrorism as "War by Other Means"

It can be argued that regardless of which side wins a conventional war, the probability of enormous damage remains inevitably high. Hence in that regard, states could view terrorism as a less costly "war by other means." Further, when terrorism is viewed from a rational perspective, it can effectively be described as "war by other means." From this perspective, terrorism comes across as the use of conscious tactic to bring about terror aimed at destabilizing an established order. It can also be noted that just like war, terrorism can be thought of in terms of what motivates or drives the combatants. The combatant's aspirations in this case could be hinged on psychological, cultural or even political motivations.

Al-Qaeda's Civilian Targets: a Look at the "Distinction" Tenet

According to this tenet, civilians cannot be considered legit war targets. Technically, even though al-Qaeda considers the United States to be its enemy, members of the public cannot be taken to be enemy combatants as they do not possess the ability to actively defend themselves against external aggression. With that in mind, al-Qaeda can only justify the death of civilians if such death occurs as a consequence of an actual confrontation with the actual combatants e.g. The military.