Debate: Terrorist or freedom fighter?

INTRODUCTION
“One man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter.” This quote is a well-known one – with the on-going conflict around the world, the debate surrounding this quote is more fervent than ever. While the West has categorically labelled those fighting for the Islamic State and other similar groups as terrorists, for others, they are freedom fighters. The question is though, which of these beliefs is correct, or do both have grounds?

IDEOLOGIES
Western and Eastern ideologies play a big part in this overall debate. While the West is firmly in the modern day, offering an opportunity and a better life for many, the East appears at times to be in the dark ages, often medieval with some of their rules and regulations. As mentioned, there are a host of conflicts going on at the moment – the on-going conflict in Iraq and Syria, the battle in the Congo and also the Nigerian encounter.

TERRORISTS?
To take an example – the Islamic State – formally known as ISIS or ISIL. During their bid to claim large swathes of Iraq and Syria, forming a “caliphate”, they have left a bloody trail behind, killing thousands. Without doubt, this has been an act of evil. While they suggest that they do this in the name of religion, no religion can condone the acts of violence we have seen in recent months. There have been so many victims of the advancement of the Islamic State. When the West designates an organisation like this as a terrorist group, there are always grounds to do this.

Perhaps the biggest signifier that they are terrorists is their sickening videos they have released through their Al-Furqan media arm. Many journalists, even some aid workers – all innocent bystanders in the conflict, have been murdered in cold blood, before putting their families through the pain of releasing a video of the act. While these videos have been released in their dozens, we are yet to see a video of Barack Obama or any leading authority figure from the West engaging in such a brutal act. The US continue to help the Iraqi and Syrian civilians in trying to halt the advance of the Islamic State, however there is only a certain amount they can do.

FREEDOM FIGHTERS?
While the obvious idea is that those that take part in these mass executions, suicide bombings and despicable videos are terrorists, it would be unfair to not analyse the other side of the story. A freedom fighter is defined as a “person engaged in a resistance movement against what they believe to be an oppressive and illegitimate government.” When applying this to Syria – you could suggest that the Islamic State can fit this category. The Assad regime have been known to not treated their civilians well.

The Nigerian group Boko Haram have also labelled themselves’ freedom fighters. They bid to impose sharia law in Nigeria. Their name translates close to “Western Education is forbidden.” One thing is for certain – it is unfair to deny children the right to an education – no freedom fighters would be doing this. But it is only to fair to an extent to consider terrorist groups freedom fighters – after all, many consider them to be.

OVERALL
In conclusion, this is a topic very much open to opinion. From a Western perspective, it is clear that these organisations are terrorist-related. No politically-correct group would go round killing masses in sickening executions. The Islamic State are an ideal example of how a group can be designated terrorist. What is important to remember is that these groups do have support, whether those who support them have had their mind-warped is a question for another day, but to some, they are freedom fighters. However overall, it is hard to justify the acts of terrorist groups around the world, with their designation as a terrorist group surely correct.

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(‘036’)

U.S. Drone Strikes: Can they be Justified?

With the terrorist group ISIS advancing through large swathes of Iraq and Syria, leaving a bloody trail behind them, it is no surprise to see the United States leading drone strikes against them to try and halt their progress. There is an old saying that “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” However in this case this couldn’t be further than the truth – ISIS are pure evil, with force required to try and defeat them. These drone strikes help to stall their progress and weaken their numbers. Drone strikes are nothing new, but how justifiable they are remains to be seen.

Drone strikes have been used effectively for over ten years. One of the main positives about the drone strikes are that the drones themselves’ are unmanned and difficult to detect, meaning they can be used effectively. Many of Al-Qaeda’s most influential personnel have been killed by targeted drone strikes. Of course the cost of these drone strikes are the main negative – just one predator drone will cost a minimum of $5M!

Back to the overall argument and it is difficult to ask whether or not they can be justified. Drone strikes have been in operation since 2002. I have taken a small sample of information which can help to represent some overall statistics. Below is a table showing statistics from the New America Foundation, showing the effect of the drone strikes:

It is worth stressing that these are just statistics for Pakistan. This table completely discounts the drone strikes currently being used in Iraq and Syria to try and stop the movement of ISIS. In total in the last ten years there have been almost 3,000 in total killed by the drone strikes. What is important when choosing whether or not they can be justified or not is to look at the civilian column. 286 civilians have been killed in drone strikes in Pakistan.

This is 286 victims of the conflict. It is highly unfortunate for them to be caught up in this conflict, after all, they are just civilians. What it comes down to is the question of whether or not it is acceptable to make this sacrifice to kill 2,291 militants. Within reason, there is one civilian death for every ten militants killed. It can be argued that this is for the greater good. It is of course as mentioned very unfortunate for civilians to be caught up in this – but at the end of the day USA and other countries taking part in drone strikes are just looking out for their best interests.

They have a duty too protect their own civilians – if drone strikes can do this, then surely it is acceptable for civilian casualties – as long as there aren’t many of them. But then the counter argument to this is that what price can you put on an innocent life? Out of the civilians killed – it is likely that many of these people would’ve had families – families that have been dis-jointed as a result of these strikes. There is also research to suggest that these drone strikes actually cause more people to come up against USA – they see it as an act of aggression. It is also worth bearing in mind that the data I used above was just for one country – this number would be huge if it was on a worldwide scale.

Overall there are some evil, evil people in this world. The USA  have helped enormously to protect their own citizens against many militants – these drone strikes are perhaps the main cause of this. Although it may seem harsh, it is almost necessary that for as many civilians lives’ that are lost – it is ultimately worth it as more people are safe because of it. It is a difficult subject – one that open to opinion – everyone will have different ideas over how fair the strikes are – but one thing is for certain, they aren’t going to stop anytime soon.

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(‘019’)

World Conflict: Will it ever end?

There is a considerable amount of conflict around the world at the moment. There is the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict, militants around the world waging war against civilians – among them the Boko Haram militant group in Nigeria. Then there is the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, while one of the conflicts heavily in the news at the moment is the advancement of the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq. Some of the acts that have taken place in recent weeks and months border on barbaric. How is it that after all of this time on Earth, there is still mass conflict around the world, it affects so many people.

It is extremely unfair that it seems to be the civilians who suffer the most. Through no fault of their own, they are being caught up in horrible situations and are in no safe situation. In Iraq at the moment members of the Yazidi community have had to flee their homes to go and seek refuge on a mountain range. Thankfully US forces are flying in aid to help limit the damage. It isn’t right that people are being persecuted for what they believe in. The Islamic State (IS) have caused an unbelievable amount of deaths, releasing gruesome, harrowing videos of some of the murders. There were so many innocent people caught up in the conflict, woman and children as well. It is not fair that IS haven’t given a chance to some people just because what they believe in. They have been responsible for some cowardly actions, this particular conflict shows no sign of ending any time soon.

Then there are other conflicts as well around the world. Ukrainian rebels allegedly shooting down a full-airplane – what did the 300 or so passengers on board do to deserve being shot down? It isn’t just the victims that suffer either – it is all of the families of the victims as well. It simply isn’t fair that there is so much evil in the world.

As sad as it is it doesn’t look like any time soon the conflict around the world will stop. When people are born they are born with a fresh slate – no one is born evil. But there is obviously a lot of hate around the world at the moment – things don’t show any sign of getting any better. The fact that so many lives have been lost in recent times underlines the problem – but realistically there isn’t a lot that can be done. However in the future, there is always the chance that perhaps things will get better – for the good of the human race, I certainly hope that things do get better. Realistically though – this isn’t going to happen any time soon.

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(‘007’)