War And Terrorism
Essay Preview: War And Terrorism
Report this essay
WAR AND TERRORISM
WAR: A contention by force or the art of paralysing the forces of the enemy. It is either public or private. Public war is either civil or national. Civil war is that which is waged between two parties, citizens or members of the same state or nation. National war is a contest between two or more independent nations, carried on by authority of their respective governments.
War is not only an act but a state or condition. nation are said to be at war not only when their armies are engaged but also when they have any matter of controversy or dispute subsisting between them which they are determined to decide by the use of force, and declaring publicly or by their acts. Their determination to decide it.
National wars are said to be offensive or defensive. War is offensive on the part of that government which commits the first act of violence. It is defensive on the part of that government which receives such acts. It is very difficult to say to say what will be the first act for violence. If a nation sees itself menaced with an attack its fist act of violence will be considered as defensive.
War ethics: the purpose of war ethics is to decide what is right or wrong both for individuals or countries, and to contribute to debates on public policy, government and individual action. War ethics also leads to formal codes of war( Geneva conventions),implementation of rules and punishment of soldiers and other war crimes.
Writers on ethics of war fall into three major categories:
At one extreme are the realists who believe that all is fair in war.
At the other extreme are pacifists who believe war is wrong and unethical in its very nature because it involve killing of innocent people.
In between the two extremes there is a more moderate view, which lists the conditions under which a country may fight an ethical war. Advocates of this view follow the just war theory. This theory details the instance when waging war is justified and what a nation should do when in war.
Terrorism: is an immoral way of achieving an end. It involves systematic use of terror or unpredictable violence against government, public or individual to attain an objective. This objective may be political or financial. Terrorism can either be domestic or international depending on the origin, base, and objective of the terrorist. The main objective of terrorist usually is to attract attention and or spread fear among people. This fear and attack by terrorist leads to retaliation by the authorities, which will start a cycle of violence. Mainly due to these reasons terrorism is regarded unethical whether attack on civilians, public or military personal. The biggest problem faced by United Nation and other international organisation is that they are not able to provide a comprehensive definition of terrorism, they have not been successful in differentiate between terrorism and freedom fighter.
Does the fact that one side terrorist is usually anothers freedom fighter mean that there is no possibility of agreeing on ethical norms applicable to armed conflicts between governments and their opponents. There are no easy answers to this issue. We cannot simply condemn all violence nor can we accept the view that ethical judgements are irrelevant.
Terrorist activities have been going on for centuries but theu have comeinto spotlight now in a big way due to the sep 11 attacks on US. Its was the first attack on us main land ever. More than 3000 people died and some 6000 sustained injuriesand hundred of thousand of people suffered physical and psychological effects. This attack shows the need to solve the problem of terrorist and freedom fighters.
War on Iraq
(EXAMPLE)
There have been many wars in the past but lets start by looking at the war going on in our back yards Iraq. You all have heard about it you all have read about it and in this new age of technology you all have had the front seats to view the conflict. This war is perfect example of what terrorist can bring about. After Sep 11 the whole American policy has become more aggressive. They are not willing to sit back and be taken for a ride; they understand the threat posed by terrorist and countries. That is when they decided to attack Iraq
The British and the Americans lead a war on Iraq only on the bases of weapon of mass destruction according to them no country should posses, use or threaten with such weapons. The coalition believed that Iraq posed a clear and present threat of using or passing WMD. They felt that there was a need to neutralize the leadership and according to them liberate the people of Iraq.
(EXAMPLE)
On September 1st 1939 Germany under the leadership of Hitler invaded Poland. On September 3rd Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany and thus started WW2.Intially Germany had the support of Soviet Union and Italy but after Germany attacked USSR It changed sides and supported the allied forces and Italys leadership was overthrown. In pacific Japan exercised full control and attacked pearl harbour which brought America into the war. In the end the war lasted for 7 years and approx. 61 million people died. This not only includes military personnel but also civilians population. It ended when America dropped 2 nuclear bombs on Japans city of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is believed that more than 140,000 people in Hiroshima died by the end of the year. They were citizens including students, soldiers and Koreans who worked in factories within the city. The total number of people who have died due to the bomb is estimated to be 200,000 and in Nagasaki It is estimated that approximately 70,000 people died by the end of the year because of the bombing It ended on a sad note with a great deal of controversy. Some people believed that dropping the nuclear bombs was unethical and morally wrong were as others said that if they had not been dropped the continuing war would have claimed more life.
THE NEED TO DO ON WMD:
We all around us keep hearing about the WMD on the TV reading on the net and press. It seem sthat wmd is the only subject nowadays. We believe that the surprising part is not that we hear about WMD everywhere but the realization of the need to get the world rid of them came so late. Is it that people have been sleeping for the past 50 years or is it that it has been kept out of discussion due to superpowers own agenda. In the recent time the up most concern of superpowers is to stop WMD falling into