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Eliminating Terrorism

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When one is coming to understand terrorism and all of its components, a generally accepted definition is hard to come by because it tends to be described through the “subjective outlook of the definer” (Ganor, 2002). This idea has best been described as saying that “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” (Laqueur, 1987). For example, Osama Bin Laden, the man who is most known in the development of the plans for the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, was most likely seen as a freedom fighter in the eyes of those in support of Al-Qaeda, while Americans and people all around the world viewed his actions as one of a terrorist. Terrorism is not this tangible object that can be defined as one thing and is applied …show more content…

Eliminating terrorism appears to be a futile goal being as conflict is a understandably normal part of society, so having a grasp on it seems to be the only option people have around the world. In order to do this, however, a definition for terrorism is important to develop because if there is not a concise definition of terrorism, terrorists can still “operate under the guise of legitimacy” (White, 2016) because without a definition that fully encompasses all kinds of aspects of terrorism, they can have access to loopholes that appear to be legal. A definition can be applied through understanding three key elements – the terrorists’ use of violence, the aim of the violence is political, and the targets of the violence are civilians (Ganor, 2002). Not only are these three key elements important to an all-inclusive definition, it must be clear in order to “avoid double standards, and it should encompass all forms of the act, irrespective of the perpetrator, actor, target, place or time” (Zeidan, 2003). There should be an agreement of this definition of terrorism between the state and federal levels of government within one nation, as well as an agreement of the definition between all nations so that a terrorist group cannot thrive and become …show more content…

The term originally referred to government actions, not related to acts of revolutionaries (White, 2016). From government repression in France through the foundation of the Irish Republic, there has been a shift in ideology and definition of terrorism, so that gives us even more-so of a difficult time trying to figure out how to define terrorism is the idea of it can change swiftly due to political and social circumstances. Defining terrorism does not just apply to the United State’s idea of what terrorism encompasses; it includes our country, other industrialized countries, as well as third-world counties, so the definition must encompass all walks of life, cultures, political backgrounds, and means of committing these violent acts to make matters even more

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