Question

Should terrorists be treated like criminals or enemy combatants? Why?

Answer 1

• They should be treated as criminal suspects until caught, then as defendants til convicted. And there are multiple reasons for this:
• Treating them differently implicitly grants their causes significance and/or legitimacy they do not deserve.
• Treating them like any other criminals (once convicted) deprives them of any form of individual glory. Instead of sitting in a detention area with others of political significance, they get to sit in a maximum security prison with other murderers, and also with rapists, violent thieves, drug smugglers, etc.
• It’s an act of cowardice to treat them like they are any more important or fearful than other criminals. That is yet another kind of victory for terrorists, and this time the exact one they are aiming for: to make us fear them, to make us act out of that fear.
• We must always draw a distinction between terrorists and enemy combatants. One group of people fight for their own country or beliefs, they do so with honor even if their beliefs are not ours. The other group of people deliberately target civilians with the intention of forcing those who don't believe as they do to live in fear. They have given up the right to the respect due to an honorable enemy.
  
• Terrorists should be treated as criminals rather than as combatants. Terrorists as a whole do not operate in conjunction with each other. Though some do act in groups, the term terrorist can be applied to several distinct groups that have no affiliation. To treat them as an enemy is to treat them as an entity, which they are not. Rather, they are violent organized gangs of criminals, who when caught, should be tried under the court system as any other criminal would.