IntroductionIn her book, Terrorism in the 21st Century, Cynthia Combs states that terrorism, whatever the cause, is never acceptable3. Although I agree that killing innocent people is usually wrong; I don't think you can make a sweeping generalization that terrorism is never acceptable. I predict that, given fair and impartial analysis, some cases of terrorism are morally acceptable. Terrorism is almost always considered one of the most deplorable crimes. The terrorists themselves have been called enemies of humanity, but are such accusations true? Are they really criminals committing immoral and unjust attacks, or are they just fighting a war as best they can? Questions like this are difficult to answer impartially. The world population has a very negative view of terrorism because we are its victims, its targets. But for those who commit these acts, they must be morally acceptable. To counter this situational bias, I will use five of the most common ethical theories to analyze various terrorist attacks. Introduction to Ethical Theories The first ethical theory that I will use as a tool to determine the morality of terrorist attacks is the divine command theory. Simply put, divine command theory states that your action is right if and only if and right because God commands it.8 This theory is absolute, there is no room for maneuver. Whatever command God gives is the right thing to do. There are five commonly accepted sources for determining God's commandments: Scripture, religious authority, individual revelation, public signs, and reason8. Millions of Americans make moral decisions based on divine command theory every day without realizing it. And in other countries, like Israel or Iran, it's in the middle of the paper. ConclusionIt is easy to assume that all terrorist activity is bad, but it is a mistake to do so. Terrorism and political violence are tools, methods to achieve an objective. And no tool is ever immoral. This is what you plan to accomplish with this tool and how you use it. Although terrorism is more extreme than other political tools like protest and lobbying, there are situations in which it is the correct, and perhaps only, course of action. When such situations arise, it is inappropriate to label them as immoral without first analyzing the situation impartially. In most cases the results will probably be as expected, with the terrorists being immoral, but this will not always be the case. It's still possible that the terrorists you were ready to call enemies of humanity are actually fighting to make the world a better place..