Violence versus Peace in the Modern World - Essay Example

Introduction In our every day life, we develop various emotions and concepts in our mind through which we face different scenarios of life. If we apply those emotions or concepts in a positive manner to any sort of situation, we come out of that situation with success and triumph. But if we misuse those emotions or concepts while dealing with any specific issue, they prove to be perilous and risky for us instead of being beneficial. Similarly, there are various historic issue schemes which can be applied to different major events which occur in the world we live. If the optimistic aspect of those issue schemes is applied while concluding any specific event, we come out with a positive approach towards conclusion of that event, and if pessimistic aspect of those issue schemes are applied, then appropriate conclusion towards any specific event can not be drawn. It is really essential to apply such issue scheme to any specific issue which should enable us in drawing a better conclusion. Selected historic issue and event Before going into discussing impact of a historic issue on a selected event, let’s first get to know which historic issue and event are chosen for this purpose. The historic issue which has been selected is violence versus peace and the event on which its implication will be discussed is 9/11, a violent attack on the world trade center. The selected issue is a real ongoing issue in the present era and almost every country in the world is facing the dilemma of violence these days. And in opposition to that, peace is the phenomenon which has a lot of influence in settling up disputes and conflicts either among the individuals or among the nations. The event which is selected is also related to the historic issue of violence versus peace and in this assignment, we will show how much significance violence and peace has on the event of 9/11. Violence While discussing a historic issue, let’s first get to know what violence is. To start with violence, it is those sadistic and aggressive acts done by a group or an individual whose purpose is to create fear and terror among some people or societies. We can also say that any act which creates fear and affects psychological stability of a person or society is called an act of violence. Whenever a violent act occurs, the people living in that specific area get mentally distressed and their routine life also get disturbed because of the fear that is generated due to the violent act. People, who perform violent acts, always have a motive of creating fear and distress among people. “Violent groups have an ideological goal and their agenda is to destabilize the political, economic and social status of a nation” (Adler & Denmark, 1995). These people not only target the buildings but also the civilians living in any specific area. The people of the world are facing a lot of tragedies and calamities due to violence. When a violent act occurs, several deaths occur and many people get injured as a result. The impact of fear on an injured person remains for whole of his life. It not only disturbs his private life but also practical life. Proper measures should be taken by the government in order to eradicate violence. Tend (2007) found that “media can play a significant role in eliminating the root causes of violence”. If we talk about the objectives of the people creating violence, we come to know that there are a lot of purposes and objectives which motivate a person to perform a violent act in order to get the desired goal and objective either forcefully or by peace. The main objectives of these people are as follows: To create fear among people To destabilize economy of a nation To destabilize political situation of a nation To create an atmosphere of risk for investors, and To achieve targets through pressurizing a government Talking about violence, we must also talk about various types and forms of violence. Some of the major forms of violence are political violence, non-political violence, state violence, religious violence, quasi violence, criminal violence and pathological violence. Let’s now discuss those root causes which promote violence among individuals or some nations. These are those causes which motivate a person or groups of individuals for doing a violent act in order to achieve some targets or objectives which can not be achieved under normal circumstances. While talking about causes of violence, we can say that violence is caused by several factors including social, political, religious, criminal injustice and psychological factors. Other factors include poverty, hopelessness, desperation, lack of opportunities and military threats. These factors play a significant role in building up the need of violent acts among the people of any society. When people feel that they will be deprived or denied of their social or political rights, they go for violent acts in order to get some satisfaction for the injustice which happened with them. Criminal injustice also plays a critical role in motivating violence among individuals. When people see that they are being sentenced for an uncommitted crime just because the other party has power of changing the court’s verdict in their favor, they go for violent acts. They try to get revenge by indulging themselves in criminal activities and violent acts against the other party and law officials. Poverty also plays an important role in increasing violence among individuals. When the people will have no jobs, they will not have enough money to live their lives, they will be deprived of basic necessities, the people will go for violent acts in order to get some revenge from the society and earn their livings. So, these were some of the root causes of violence which is prevailed in the individuals through personal dissatisfaction and injustice. Peace While talking about violence, we must talk about an opposing term, peace. To start with peace, it means by that moral principle which tells us that use of any kind of force is wrong for any sort of reason. It stresses on negotiations and dialogs for setting up the disputes instead of going for violent activities. It means that force should not be applied on solving any kind of issue. Fischbach (2006) found that “violence is not the solution of any problem; rather we should deal it with harmony and with peaceful efforts”. Peace is opposite to violence or extremism and educated us to deal with the problems and issues peacefully instead of showing any sort of aggressive behavior. It negates the use of military wars between any two nations and stresses on the use of peaceful peaces for settling up any kind of disputes. “The concept of peace educates us to avoid violence while dealing with any situation” (Harris & Morrison, 2003). If we talk about peace, we must say that all social, political, economic, financial, criminal, religious and non-political disputes should be dealt with tranquility, harmony and with negotiations instead of violence and wars. Peace holds that war and violence create fear and destabilizes the nations’ economy instead of leading towards beneficial solutions towards disputes. Peace stresses on nonviolent acts on disputes and endorses peaces instead of violence. It promotes that nonviolent acts are much more beneficial and useful as compared to war and violence. When there is peace in a country, stability of economy prevails which turns up to be a huge benefit for any country and when there is no peace, economy destabilizes because there is not foreign investment in the countries where there is violence and no peace. Freedman (1998) found that “disputes can be handled through talks and negotiations instead of going for violent acts”. When there will be peaceful and friendly atmosphere between any two countries, it will be a great benefit for the economic and business conditions of those countries. Both countries will have a trust in each other which will promote investment in different fields. Importance of peace can be known in a sense that when there is not violent activity and peace is prevailed everywhere; the government of any specific country will be able to concentrate on developmental issues of the country instead of focusing on fighting against terrorism and violence. If we talk about the outcomes of peaceful atmosphere in a country, we come to know that there are a lot of benefits of prevailing peace instead of violence. The major benefits of peace within a country are as follows: Peace prevails suitable working environment Peace stabilizes economy of a country Peace promotes friendly relations with the neighboring nations Peace helps in country’s development, and Peaceful talks set up disputes So, having known some major benefits of peace within a country, we come to know that violence is not the solution to any sort of problem. Violence promotes anarchy in a society instead of getting some solution. When we talk about peace, we don’t mean that whatever the other party is doing we should not resist, instead it means that we should try to bring the other party on negotiations table for a peaceful dialog but if the other party doest agree on negotiations, then proper steps must be taken to eradicate violence. And when we talk about eradicating violence, we mean that we should apply essential force to cut off the violence. A nation must be able to eradicate violence either by negotiations of by force in order to prevail peace and harmony in the country. Let’s now discuss a major event on which this historic issue of violence versus peace can be applied for the purpose of coming towards an appropriate conclusion towards the event. The event which we are going to describe is 9/11, a terrorist attack on United States of America. The event and the historic issue While talking about violence and peace, a historic issue, let’s talk about the event of 9/11 which is an example of a violent act done by the terrorists. The September 11 attacks on the world trade center of America were led by a terrorist group, Al-Qaeda. These violent attacks were made by Al-Qaeda in order to destabilize United States of America and to prove it’s presence in the western world. Now, this was a deadly violent act which caused nearly 9000 victims which included 2973 deaths. Here a question arises that why these violent acts occurred? What was the reason behind this? What was in mind of the terrorists because of which they caused so many causalities? All these questions has one basic answer that those terrorists wanted to prove their worth by hijacking the planes and crashing them with the twin towers of the united states of America. Here one thing which is to be noted is that the way how they showed their power. That was a very shameful way as they caused so many causalities. Reason for the act The main reason behind such deadly acts of violence was Osama Bin Laden’s declaration of war against the United States of America. Osama bin Laded also gave a declaration for killing American citizens all over the world in 1998. So in order to prove his declaration, he went for such a deadly act. It should be noted that Osama initially denied any kind of involvement in the attacks but after some time, he admitted his involvement in the terrorist acts. It should also be mentioned that all the hijackers involved in the act of terrorism were very well educated and they had groomed personalities. Hijacking a plane and striking it to a building can never be done by an immature criminal. But the question arises that if they were so well educated, then what led them towards hijacking planes and do such acts of violence. The answer is that it’s the brain washing which is done by the terrorist groups. Brain washing is the process where terrorists train and indoctrinate a person’s mind. They make him feel that whatever the terrorists say is correct and all other world is going wrong. In the terrorist group like Al-Qaeda, the terrorists brain wash the individuals and make them believe that they will go to paradise if they kill non-Muslims. Osama bin Laden also said in a video tape that the terrorism which happened in the United States of America is a very correct act and it should be praised by everyone. The reason which he gave for such acts was that America’s injustice in the Middle East region. He believed that America’s support towards Israel was unfair. He had a belief that Israel should leave the occupied state of Palestine and should stop violence in the areas of Palestine. But when he saw that America was supporting Israel instead of forcing it to leave Palestine, he planned for revenge from America. So, for that reason he made terrorist attacks on the world state center. But it shouldn’t have been done this way because it not only caused severe damage to the trade center but also caused a lot of causalities for expressing his point of view about the Palestinian issue. Another motive behind the terrorist acts was that of America’s presence in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Osama Bin Laden wanted America to leave Saudi Arabia by making such decisions that should lead to eradication of US troops from Saudi Arabia. He believed that America has kept its troops in the holy places of Islam which is not good. For that reason, he declared war against the United States of America. Osama Bin Laden thought that America wants to hold Middle East region and Saudi Arabia permanently and if it happens, it would be not in favor of the Middle East region. So, he demanded America to carry the troops out of Saudi Arabia immediately. But when he saw that his demands were not being fulfilled by the United States of America, he made a decision to kill American citizens all over the world. This decision of Osama Bin Laden was totally erroneous because declaration of war can never be a solution to a situation. Violent acts only cause damage and causalities; they never result in an appropriate solution. Now let’s have a look at what happened just after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Just after the attacks, rescue workers and other officials ran towards the city to help out the injured persons. The persons who did this violent attack made almost 3000 children alone. Some children lost one of the parents whereas others lost both of their parents. The persons who do such kind of acts never think that how much trouble they will be leaving for the families of those persons who would die as a result of the attack. It’s true that violence can never be in favor of either party. Both the parties get causalities and the issue still remains there. The terrorists should have gone for negotiations instead of launching such a deadly attack where so many innocent people died. Here we should have a look at what happened as the aftermath of the attack. American government asked the Afghan government to hand over Osama Bin Laden to America. The demand was quite right because Osama was the person who launched this attack on America causing so many causalities. He should not have made such attacks rather have gone for peaceful dialogs with the government of America. When the Government of America saw that Afghan government was not ready to hand over Osama Bin Laden to them, they launched an attack on Afghanistan to crush out the terrorist group, Al-Qaeda. America wanted peaceful dialogs and asked the Afghan government to hand over Osama so that the strike shouldn’t take place. But afghan government didn’t show any concern about that which led the way towards military attack. While talking about 9/11 and its aftermath, we should also get to know what effects did these attacks made on the American economy. These attacks made a huge impact on the economies of not only America but also all other countries of the world. For full 7 days, exchange companies of America did not open. As we know that when markets get unstable in any country, it makes a very negative impact on the economy of that country. So, same happened there in America. When the stock markets opened to work after 7 days gap, a huge level of decline was seen on the index of the stock markets. These attacks really destabilized the stock markets of America which affected the economies of all other countries too. And this is also one of the basic motives of the attackers to destabilize the economy of any country. These attacks not only had a very negative impact on the economy of America but also it affected the citizens. People living near the world trade center got so much afraid and frightened due to the act of violence. They preferred to remain at home and didn’t want to go to schools and offices for a long time. It was also one of the motives of the attackers to apply fear on the minds of the citizens of America. They wanted Americans to get afraid of them and ask the American government to get out of the Middle East region and stop supporting Israel on the issue of Palestine. But this was not the right way to do so. The attackers should have gone for negotiations instead of attacks. They had no right to kill so many innocent people. They should have thought of the future of the families of the killed persons like what would happen with them when their beloved ones would die. Having discussed the event of 9/11, we come to know that it not only created fear on the mind of the people of America but also destabilized the economy to a great extent. But nothing happened in favor of the terrorists as a result. They not only lost their image but also the government in Afghanistan. Conclusion towards the issue and event Having discussed the historic issue and the event, we come to know that violence is never and can never be a successful way to achieve some targets and objectives. Any group of people or any individual should go for peaceful dialogs for setting up any sort of dispute rather than going for a violent act. Violence not only affects other peoples’ lives but also affects their dependents. Every country should take proper measures in order to eradicate violence out of the country. When there will be violence any where in the country, it will take no time in reaching every part of the country. Proper steps should be taken to root out violence at the earliest stages because when it is not given attention at the early stages, it turns out to be a disaster for not only the economy but also the precious lives of the people living in that country. Peaceful talks should be arranged with all violent groups in order to eradicate the problems peacefully. But peaceful talks doesn’t mean that the government of any specific country should surrender to the unfair demands of the terrorist groups, it rather means to bring the terrorist groups on the table of negotiations and if those groups give assurance of not indulging in any sort of violent activities in future, then there demands should be listened and if they are not unfair, then the government should fulfill those demands. This will turn out to be in great favor of the nation because if there will be peace everywhere in the country, not only foreign investment will occur but also it will result in stabilizing the economic conditions of the nation. References Adler, L., & Denmark, F. (1995). Violence and the prevention of violence. U.S.A: Greenwood Publishing Group. Tend, D. (2007). The myth of media violence: A critical introduction. U.S.A: Blackwell Publishing. Fischbach, M. (2006). The peace process and Palestinian refugee claims: addressing claims for property, compensation and restitution. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press. Harris, M., & Morrison, M. (2003). Peace education (2nd ed.). North Carolina: McFarland & Company. Freedman, R. (1998). The Middle East and the peace process: the impact of the Oslo Accords. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida. Read More