Attitudes Toward War

ATTITUDES TOWARD WAR: THE INFLUENCE OF RACISM, ISLAMOPHOBIA AND RELIGIOUS DOGMATISM

According to the Council on Foreign Relations (2006, p. 1), terrorism is defined by the State Department as, "premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience." Four key elements of terrorism are said to be that it is premeditated, designed to change existing political orders, aimed at civilians rather than military targets, and is carried out not by the arm of a country but by a sub-national group. The United States is currently conducting a "war on terrorism" which Moseley (2002) has noted brings up the question of what precisely is meant by the term 'war.'

According to Moseley (2002), this question is quite reasonable given the differing definitions of war that have been conceptualized over the centuries. In his examination of classic definitions of war, extending all the way back to the Greeks, Moseley concludes that the most basic definition is that war is any active, armed hostility or struggle between states. However, this is too narrow a definition of the war on terrorism which is an effort by the governments of the United States and its principal allies to search and destroy groups deemed to be "terrorist" most of which are radical Islamic groups which may be, in some cases, state supported but are not states or countries themselves. In cases s

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Category: Psychology - A