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... owing. Soldiers and citizens are being killed in the war. Unfortunately, the target governments are not treating terrorism like the war it is. If we take the United States as an example, the limited war powers granted to the president by Congress are not powerful enough and are not used in a systematic way to defeat the enemy. If we are to win the war against terrorism, we must realise that it is war.
Until we see it as military aggression, we will be unsuccessful in ending terrorism in this decade. If we continue on with the example of the United States, The ability of these groups to carry out their agenda is not the issue. The fundamental issue is how U. S. government leaders should deal with this new type of military strategy.
Terrorists have held American diplomats hostage for years, blown up military compounds, and hijacked aeroplanes and cruise ships. Although some hostages have been released, many others have been killed, and the U. S. has been unsuccessful at punishing more than a small number of terrorists. Even though international diplomacy has been the primary means used by The United States against terrorism, we should consider what other means may be appropriate.
In the past American leaders have responded to military aggression in a variety of ways short of declaring war. The U. S. Constitution grants the following powers to Congress: "To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high Seas, and offences against the law of nations; to declare war, grant letters of marquee and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water. " Terrorist acts fall into at least two of the congressional provisions for dealing with attacks on the nations.
They are: (1) to punish offenses against the law of nations, and (2) to declare war. In either case, there are strong constitutional grounds for taking action against terrorists. The difficulty comes in clearly identifying the enemy and being willing to risk offending many Arab nations whom we consider allies. Congress must identify the enemy and call that group a military target. Once that has happened, many of the other steps fall into place with less difficulty. It can be seen that, through diplomatic channels we must make two things very clear to the leaders of the host country.
First, they should catch and punish the terrorist groups as civilian criminals. Or, second, they should extradite the enemy soldiers to an international court for trial. If the host country fails to act on these two requests, we should make it clear that we see it as in complicity with the terrorist groups. By failing to exercise their civil responsibility, these countries leave themselves open to the consequences of allowing military forces hostile to the target government, to remain within their borders.
Although diplomacy has its place, it is easy to see that diplomacy and negotiation do not strike fear in the hearts of terrorists. In most cases, diplomatic efforts have failed to bring terrorists to justice. It has been shown that Romans 13 acknowledges the government's right to bear the sword to protect its citizens from criminal threats within the country and military threats outside the country. We have also shown that military action is sanctioned by Congress "to punish piracies and felonies" and to punish "offence against the law of nations. " With these facts as background, we should now focus on the issue of just punishment. The principle here is that the punishment must be proportional to the crime. A judge could not chop off a man's hand merely because he scratched another man's hand in a fight.
The punishment should be burn for burn and wound for wound. In saying this, it does not mean that the target government should not go off and start to bomb the host countries cities if the do not do anything to stop a terrorist group that had for examples sake, kidnapped the target governments governmental officials. However, just and proportional punishment also means that we should not apply too light a punishment. Countries that harbour terrorists and refuse to punish or extradite them should be pressured. Punishment could come in the form of economic embargoes, import-export restrictions, the serving of diplomatic relations, or even military actions. Any excessive reaction in a situation like this would not only be unjust, bit it would also fuel the fires of an even stronger retaliation from the host country.
In the most desperate cases, a strike force of counter terrorists might be necessary where the threat is both real and imminent. This however, should be considered only as an option of last resort. Some examples of such actions are, in 1989, an Israeli special forces team successfully captured a man by the name of Sheik Obeid, and no doubt put a dent in the terrorist network by bringing one of its leaders to justice. Another example is, in 1985, United States Air Force planes were able to force down an Egyptian airliner to prevent the escape of another terrorist leader. These are acts which should be done rarely and carefully. But, they may be appropriate means to bring about justice.
In conclusion, terrorism must be recognised as a new type of military aggression that requires governmental action. It involves an undeclared war and government officials must take the same sort of actions that they would if threatened by a hostile country. There must be changes in order to prevent further terrorist aggression in this decade and in the future. There has to be a line drawn if we are too completely eradicate this modern scourge of terrorism. Works Cited Quotation: Winston Churchill The Apostle Paul, "Romans 13 ", The New Student Bible. Grand Rapides: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992.
Madison, George. (Recorder), The United States Constitution. New York: 1791. Bibliography Guide, Adrian. The Age of Terrorism and The International Political System London: Tours Academic Studies, 1995. Info-Warfare, (Internet), Available: Error!
Bookmark not defined. Laqueur, Walter. The Age of Terrorism. Boston: Brown, 1987.
Long, David. The Anatomy of Terrorism. New York: Collier Macmillan, 1990. Terrorism, (Internet), Available: Error!
Bookmark not defined. Terrorism, (Internet), Available: Error! Bookmark not defined. Terrorism Statistics, (Internet), Available: Error! Bookmark not defined.
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