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It doesn’t matter if the criminal has a lot of justifications or explanations for his actions – the behavior isn’t tolerated for any reason. Such individuals are put down by the state with great force as quickly as possible.
It wasn’t always like that. If you read Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, which is based on historical accounts, you will see that Brutus and the other murderers figured that after they assassinated Caesar, they would just explain their reasons to everybody, and the public would find that their actions were justified.
There was no public consensus, and no law, at the time that said anyone who committed murder—even the murder of a public official such as Caesar—would be arrested or otherwise punished. At the time the behavior—murder committed with an elaborate justification saying it was good for the state—was relatively new, and people hadn’t yet decided how they felt about it.
Centuries later, things have changed. Everyone agrees that the explanation or justification is irrelevant. If someone does a murder, the state gets on that person’s case as quickly as possible. They’re arrested. There’s a trial. In cases of self-defense, the person is excused; otherwise there’s no escape from pursuit and punishment.
There’s a parallel today. Terrorism is the mass murder of civilians, utilized to advance political agendas. Today the terrorists think they can stand up and explain their reasons to everybody, and that enough people will agree with them so that they can go on doing it. The behavior is relatively new, and people haven’t yet reached a consensus on how they feel about it. You can find people, particularly in the Mid-East, who support terrorism.
It may take decades, but I believe that inevitably the community of nations will come to a consensus that, like any other murder, terrorism is not to be tolerated, regardless of the justifications or explanations presented by the terrorists.
To get there, we must do everything necessary to show those practicing terrorism that it’s a dead end, that it is not successful for their own purposes. See the previous post for more on that.
