Can terror ever be legitimately employed in conflict Discuss with Essay

Can terror ever be legitimately employed in conflict Discuss with reference to examples - Essay Example During World War II, both the Allies and the Axis used terror as a weapon of winning the war. Different debates have questioned the legitimacy of using terror as a weapon for ending conflicts. Terrorism is viewed to bring negative effects to a nation; this is because in attaining its main objective, the central target is the civilians (Herman 2008, p. 13). Although it brings negative impacts to a nation, sometimes use of terror benefits the nation. For instance, it can assist in the acquisition of freedom. This was the case in South Africa during the time of Apartheid. Apartheid was abolished through the use of terror. Although war is thought to be associated with vast negative effects, sometimes violence can bring positive results to a group or a nation. In this paper, I will discuss whether terror can be legitimately employed in conflicts. According to different researchers, legitimating of terror is justifiable in some cases. In extreme cases, where democratic and peaceful methods have been exhausted, it is justified and legitimate to resort to terror. In situations of suffering and repression, with a ruthless, oppressive state and no possibility of having international relief, it is necessary to resort to violence in order to defend the citizens. A state engaging and using terror in order to fight and rescue its citizens uses terror in a legitimate and justified manner (Coady 2010, p. 21). It is the function of a state to protect its people without fear; hence, if the use of terror remains the only option for the state to use in order to fight for its people, it would be interpreted as necessary and justifiable. Each person or minority group has a right in expressing discontentment in a certain issue of concern. The state has the role of representing its people and should make facilitation of this possibility. In addition, it is

Torturing terrorist by the goverment Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Torturing terrorist by the goverment - Article Example Suspects of terrorism are expected to provide the government with intelligence information on the whereabouts of their gangs, sympathizers and financiers. However, to extract this information from them always become the problem. This is because most of these suspects are under oath to protect the activities of their groups. For example, most of them opt to commit suicide rather than having to be interrogated by the authorities. Concealing this information, therefore, renders a big blow to governments counter-terrorism activities. Proposals have for this reason been forwarded encouraging governments to use more force on the suspects and this involves the application of torture to the suspects. This, however, has human rights implications besides the expected outcomes. This means that in the face of the society, the human rights organizations and the international community, torturing terrorism suspects have pros and cons. Applying torture to terrorism suspects have advantages. First, torture to terrorism suspects has not been covered in the Geneva Convention report on the treatment of prisoners of war. Further, the convention only prohibits torture in the culprits own soil. When happening in another country, torture is thus legally acceptable. Secondly, treating terrorism with diplomacy only makes the situation worse. When the dignity of the suspects is respected as proposed by humanitarian organizations the terrorists are even more encouraged to make attacks. In addition, new members have no reproach joining the terror groups. This is as opposed to a torture situation in which case even those who have the intentions of joining such groups become discouraged. This slowly weakens the group and makes it unable to conduct attacks in future. Thirdly, the fight against terrorism often requires the people to make a choice between two evils. To use torture to compel disclosure of intelligent information,