I feel that act of war are terroristic. War is really the suspension of civil life. On the one hand it is tragic that war, inevitably means the death of people. But surely it is the aim of the war that is important. Can war be justified? Is all war, or acts of terrorism, wrong?
I find it difficult to answer in the affirmative. Some wars or acts of terrorism have meant the destruction of the few for the greater good. I think of the American war of independence; the French Revolution the Russian Revolution and the anti colonialist wars.
War is not something that we can measure by moral standards alone the reason or aim of a war or an act of terrorism is how we should be creating our judgement.
9/11 cannot be compared to the horrific use on the Japanese of the A bomb. However much I find that aspect of history to be horrific at least it could be justified, an explanation for it could be given. The destruction of 9/11 goes beyound anything we have experienced before. The people that carried it out did not have an aim beyound narrow (reactionary) anti-westernism. It was purely nihalistic. There were no aims aside from some moronic belief in martyrdom. It is true that individuals 'took thier own lifes' in the past. One need think of the Irish hunger strikers who were making a poiunt about British domination of that country.
I am not convinced that we can be comparative about these things especially if we ignore the causes.
