On terrorism

ByKim Yu-ri

We are always in danger of terrorism. In our case, the existence of North Korean spies always makes us uneasy. Especially the United States is so threatened by many countries and organizations that they sometimes choose excessive inspection methods such as the X-ray camera in airports.

But when we are watching the news of terrorists in the U.S., we feel sorry for the suffering country and people. Some people claim that it's the fault of powerful countries, and that the terrorists have their own ideology and justification. But regardless of whose fault it is, I think terrorism can never be justified.

First, the terrorists are not from a clear moral motive. They are just taking out their anger on innocent people. They are just the same as the children who cry when their parents didn't buy them toys so that they want people all around the world to be agitated by their cruelty.

To justify terrorism, the terrorists should have a noble cause when they decide to destroy something and take action, but they don't.

Second, they should take only the related people or establishment as a target, but hundreds of innocent people fall victim because they were there when someone decided to explode the place. If they were to destroy a place, they would have endeavored to minimize the casualty of unrelated people.

But they just bomb and people die and they think they've succeeded watching the shocking scene. Is that a moral and noble sacrifice?

It is understandable that people choose extreme measures when there's no other way to get the message across to the parties concerned and the public.

But take the case of 9/11. Thousands of people lost their lives in a moment, but we could know only that it was an unprecedented incident. It was just evil and must be blamed.

On the other hand, independent fighter Ahn Jung-geun's throwing of the bomb at Ito Hirobumi during the Japanese imperialism is different. It was a heroic deed ― a representative way of the weak to assert their rights.

However, most terrorism accompanies anger and destruction, so it cannot be justified as a patriotic movement. Although there are other peaceful ways, they intentionally choose terror. Only if a terrorist has a clear motivation and has endeavored to minimize the unnecessary sacrifice, it could be justified and accepted. Without humanism and genuineness, there are no real patriots among the terrorists.

The writer is a second year student at Kangwon Science High School.