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Can one morally justify acts terrorism?

Kolby Kamm

Dallas Center - Grimes

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At 8:48 a.m. September 11th, 2001 a passenger plane travelling over 300 miles per hour

and carrying some 10,000 gallons of jet fuel slammed into one of the buildings of the World

Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, N.Y.. At 9:03, a second plane hit the other tower. Fire and

smoke spiraled up in the sky. Steel, glass, ash, and bodies fell to the ground below. The Twin

Towers, had up to 50,000 people worked each day, both collapsed less than 90 minutes.

Not thirty minutes later that same morning, a third plane slammed into the western face

of the Pentagon. At 10:03, a fourth plane crashed landed in a field in Pennsylvania. It had been

aimed at the United States Capitol or the White House, and was forced down by the passengers

that rebelled against the hijackers. More than 2,600 people died at the World Trade Center; 125

died at the Pentagon; 256 died on the four planes. The death toll of this day surpassed the death

toll at Pearl Harbor in December 1941. September 11th, 2001 has gone down as the worst

terrorist attack in United States history.

So the question is, can one morally justify acts of terrorism? The answer is no, terrorism

is the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of

political aims. It cannot be morally justified because it destroys families and communities, it

causes high tension amongst society, it causes both psychological and economic issues in people,

and causes political issues.

The consequences of terrorist attacks often go far beyond the deaths and destruction they

cause direct and indirect economic costs, psychological effects, and social and political impacts.

The first and most immediate effects of terrorism are psychological. Terrorist acts can

psychologically affect a large majority of the population of the attacked society, either directly,

by harming a person or their family, or indirectly, through the media coverage of the attack.

Terrorism is a form of warfare against a society. It is designed to strike fear into the heart of the
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targeted society. Israel for example; civilians in Israel admit to having a constant fear of terrorist

attacks. In a 1979 survey, 73 percent of respondents reported being afraid or very afraid

that they, or their close family members, would be hurt in a terrorist attack. Similarly, 85 percent

of Israelis expressed this fear in a poll conducted in 1995, and 78 percent in a 1996 poll. In the

spring of 2002when Palestinian suicide bombings inside Israel were most frequent92

percent of Israelis reported fear that they or a member of their family would fall victim to a

terrorist attack.(Dov Waxman) The effects of terrorism are not limited to PTSD. For example,

those who witness terrorist attacks but are not directly harmed are generally the last to be

evacuated from the scene of the attack, since emergency responders typically focus their

attention on the critically injured. Therefore, acts of terrorism have a major impact on peoples

everyday lives, whether or not they are directly exposed to it.

Terrorism not only has a psychological effect but a severe economic effect as well. For

the United States, the terror attack 9/11, costed nearly $2 trillion. $380 million for the 4 lost

aircraft, replacement cost of the destruction of the World Trade Center was roughly $4.5 billion,

clean-up cost $1.3 million, damage to the Pentagon $1 billion, property damage $10 billion-$13

billion, Federal emergency funds (heightened airport security, sky marshals, government

takeover of airport security) $40 billion, $17 billion lost in wages, $21.8 billion in

damaged/unrecoverable property, $40 billion lost in the insurance industry, and the extent of the

global market fall is incalculable.(The Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, 2003-2004)

The most direct economic effect of a terrorist attack is the damage caused to life and property at

the site of the attack. Ultimately, the economic effects of terrorism depend on multiple factors. A

prolonged campaign of terrorism can negatively impact a countrys GDP(Gross Domestic

Product), especially in a small country in which tourism is a large factor in the nations economy.
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Obviously, relatively wealthy countries are more resilient the economic effects of terrorism than

the smaller, poorer countries, where any loss of national income can have extreme repercussions

on the populations standard of living. Luckily the worlds financial markets have proved time

and time again their resiliency to acts of terrorism. Terrorism can have a cost by reducing

productivity because of increased security measures, higher insurance prices, and the increased

costs of counterterrorism regulations.

Terrorism has an effect on politics as well. Terrorism has caused an effect amongst the

targeted societies called rally under the flag syndrome. The rally around the flag syndrome

generally leads to a muting of public criticism of the government and its policies. For example,

the acts of terrorism against Israeli-Jewish community caused them to rally under one flag

unifying them more than anything else has in history. Another example is after September 11,

2001, Americans all rallied under the flag and everyone in the states had an american flag

waving on their houses and cars. The military enrollment rate skyrocketed after 9/11 as well. The

United States had come together as one unifying country with no one to rip them apart.

While the political impact of terrorism is hard to pinpoint, nevertheless it can hardly be doubted

that terrorism has political effects and influences the political processes, at least in democratic

and partially democratic states.

Sadly, terrorism has a negative effect on racial views of people of the same ethnicity as

the attackers. Post 9/11 Muslim Americans were facing negative stereotypes due to the fact that

the 9/11 hijackers were muslim. Since then, increased racial and religious animosity has left

Arabs, Middle Easterners, Muslims, and those who bear stereotyped physical resemblance to

members of these groups, fearful of potential hatred and hostility from persons of other cultures.

In the eyes of Christian Americans and other religious groups in America, all Muslim Americans
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were potential terrorists and that its a religious practice of Islam to terrorize other religions.

Prior to 9/11 American society didnt have any negative stigmas around any race/religion. Once

9/11 happened a long-lasting negative stigma around Muslim Americans was formed and is still

prominent in society over 15 years later.

I believe that terrorism can never be morally justified because the sole purpose of

terrorism is to cause havoc and make other peoples lives worse. Terrorist groups are more active

now than ever before in history. There has been around 150 terrorist attacks already in 2017.

With rising tensions around the world it is hard to determine when exact another attack is coming

but it is known that they are are inevitable. Many people stereotype all muslims and middle

easterners as terrorists, but the real truth is that while yes there are middle easterners that are

terrorists, many terrorists are caucasians that have heritage to the middle east. Many members of

the well-known terrorist organization, ISIS, are everyday citizens in America, the UK, France,

and other democratic countries communicating with each other and planning attacks this very

second. It is not morally or ethically right to strike harm and kill innocent people because they

are of a different religion/ethnicity than another. Terrorists capture innocent people, torture them

and kill them, often with beheadings, on camera and share the videos on the internet for the

whole world to see. I almost had a family member die during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. My uncle

was scheduled to be on one of the airliners that crashed into the towers, luckily he slept in and

missed his flight. If he wouldve been on time to his flight my uncle would be dead and I

wouldve been indirectly terrorized by that attack. Thousands of people around the world are

affected by terrorists and terrorist attacks almost weekly. In the middle east there is constant

warfare between terrorist groups and the counterterrorism units of countries around the world.

Hopefully my future profession is counterterrorism, let that be the intelligence or the boots on the
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ground. I dont think there will ever be a time where an act of terrorism could ever be morally

justified. Terrorism has many negative effects on life and the world including, economic,

political, and social effects.

IAGS, Institute for the Analysis of Global Security. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, 2017, from

http://www.iags.org/costof911.html

Sign In: Registered Users. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2017, from

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/004728759903800104

Waxman, D. (2011). Living with terror, not Living in Terror: The Impact of Chronic Terrorism on Israeli

Society.Perspectives On Terrorism, 5(5-6). Retrieved from

http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/living-with-terror
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The World Trade Center History. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2017, from

https://www.911memorial.org/world-trade-center-history