America and other nations are quick to universally and unequivocally condemn Islamic terrorism as radical, barbaric, atheistic, and label it the work of absolute evil. We make these assertions, perhaps, because we don’t understand the definition of terrorism; perhaps it’s because we don’t understand its causes; perhaps it’s because we don’t recognize our own acts as acts of terrorism; perhaps it’s because we don’t believe or have confidence in the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Terrorism is defined in the Code of Federal Regulations as “...the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” (28 C.F.R. Section 0.85) In short, terrorism is simply the use of force to intimidate and coerce when it is perceived that all other options, if other options are considered at all, are hopeless: the reason for all violence.
Terrorism is as old as prostitution, is ubiquitous, and it has been the primary tool of all warfare for all-time. It is domestic and international, state and non-state, but regardless of its classification terrorism is always utilized to instill fear, and on the larger scale, divisiveness
Nation states have the unmitigated gall and national arrogance to sanction war by declaring it a lawful use of force. Therefore, hypocritically, terrorism is therefore legal if it is employed by nation states, but illegal if it’s employed by non-nation states.
Militaries use the euphemistic term “collateral damage” to describe the death and destruction caused to civilian populations by their terrorist attacks; they call the same acts by others as murder.
Terrorism takes its form in everything from domestic violence in the home to dropping bombs on civilian populations from 35,000 feet. It’s the “shock and awe” of Bush’s Iraq war. It takes it form in the combat units patrolling Iraq and Afghanistan, or the Apache helicopter overhead. It involves the use of napalm bombs, cluster bombs, land and sea minds, and a terrorist is the military sniper. It takes its form in assassination. Terrorist are groups using the infamous IED, and executions by any means. It takes its form in the IRS, the bully at school, at home or in the street, or the man or woman who threatens you if you don’t comply with their demands. It takes the form in child abuse. It’s the Ku Klux Klan, and other white supremacy groups. It takes its form in authoritarianism: absolutism, autocracy, despotism, dictatorship, or totalitarianism. It takes up its form in the workplace. Terrorism is hard to define because it is so all inclusive, but it is always fermented from feelings of hopelessness, and at some level is always meant to coerce, intimidate, instill fear, and create chaos and divisiveness.
There are a variety of causes for terrorism: jingoistic nationalism, religious justifications, environment and poverty, psychological and pathological determinants, narcissistic rage, national liberation, political ideology, race, and hopelessness.
One reason that is not often identified is that those who feel threatened and hopeless, who do not have an army, navy or air force, resort to terrorism simply because it is the only weapon they have. For example, the tactics of the American colonists at Concord, Massachusetts, utilized terrorism against the British: making a kill, or creating injury and chaos, and always instilling fear by sniping from the tree line or stone hedge and then disappear to do it all again; guerilla warfare was the only option they had.
However, terrorism comes down to one fundamental cause: an unquenchable feeling of hopelessness. Murders are committed because the murderer, other than pathological murderers, perceives that any other way of achieving their goals are useless; Governments and militaries believe winning can be only be achieved with violence because they feel any other way is hopeless -- such as in negotiation and diplomacy -- and not achievable.
Terrorism will never be eliminated; it can only be reduced. Terrorism will never be marginalized until we recognize that all acts of violence are terroristic, and that all nations use military intervention to coerce others to do or see things their way, or to take from someone else what is not theirs to have.
The “War on Terror” is an oxymoronic designation, since violence or terror is being used to combat terror.
We will not gain the upper-hand over terrorism until we clearly see and understand that in our personal and national lives setting the best ethical and moral example is the best way to mold others in our likeness. It means that terrorism will continue until our unacceptable example of war, “shock and awe,” and hypocrisy in supporting nations who employ terror, is changed by better example of what we as a people stand for, transformed by new ways of thinking about violence and terrorism, and leadership with probity. Violence will always beget violence, and if we do not change our attitudes and our ways of thinking, in our world the normalcy of violence will pursue even more extraordinary means of committing terror, beyond even nuclear weapons, and then the normalcy of violence will have a new and even more deadly configuration.
We will not gain the upper-hand over terrorism until we individually, at work, and in our homes and communities, nationally and internationally understand that violence is everybody’s problem; it will take all of us individually and collectively in unity to solve it by always providing the best ethical and moral example in what we say, write, and in our actions; and, understand it will not be a quick fix.
As James Carroll wrote in his article, "Jesus and the promise of Christmas”: “Humans have an inbuilt tendency to find the solution of violence in yet more violence, with the result that it spirals on forever. The victory of coercive force is inevitably the cause of the next outbreak of coercive force. Jesus proposed that the answer to violence is not more violence, but is forgiveness and righteousness - or, as we would put it, peace and justice. For 2,000 years, this program has been able to be dismissed as piety's dream. But something new is afoot. Since 1945, the normalcy of violence is armed with weapons that will surely render the human species extinct unless a different [new] way of thinking of violence is found.”
