Guerrilla Warriors...Freedom Fighters or Terrorists?

Are guerrilla warriors freedom fighters or terrorists?

Are they motivated by love or hate?

Do they promote peace or violence?

Are their leaders progressive or regressive?

Do they take their communities to a higher or a lower level of human evolution?

These were some of the questions that came to my mind whenever I thought of guerrilla warriors. To find answers to these questions I studied the biographies of Vladimir Lenin of USSR, Mao Tse Tung of China, Che Guevara of Latin America, Fidel Castro of Cuba, Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam, Menachem Begin of Israel, Yasser Arafat of Palestine, Kamal Ataturk of Turkey, Osama bin Laden of Saudi Arabia and Nelson Mandela of South Africa. For me their stories were inspiring as well as disturbing. They illustrated the extremes human beings can go to when they are committed to the cause of creating a political revolution. For me they reflected the best and the worst of human personalities. They provided me with an opportunity to peep into the brightest as well as the darkest corners of the human psyche.

While I was reviewing the biographies of guerrilla warriors, I was struck by the intense anger, resentment, bitterness and hatred they harbored in their personalities. It seemed as if hot lava, rather than blood, was flowing in their veins. Some were angry with the kings, queens, generals and dictators in the local government, while others were bitter with foreign colonial and imperialistic powers. Lenin hated the Tsar, Begin hated the British government and Che hated the American government. Che’s hatred was so intense that he called upon all the guerrilla warriors of Asia, Africa and Latin America to join him to destroy American imperialism. It seemed as if such hatred was the fuel that would mobilize the revolution. Just before his death in 1967 he sent a message from the underground entitled Message to the Tri-continental in which he wrote,

“They are pushing us into the struggle; there is no alternative: we must prepare it and we must decide to undertake it…. Our mission, in the first hour, shall be to survive; later, we shall follow the perennial example of the guerrilla, carrying out armed propaganda (in the Vietnamese sense, that is, the bullets of propaganda, of the battles won or lost---but fought---against the enemy): the great lesson of the invincibility of the guerrillas taking root in the dispossessed masses: the galvanizing of the national spirit, the preparation for harder tasks, for resisting even more violent repressions; hatred as an element of the struggle, a relentless hatred of the enemy, impelling us over and beyond the natural limitations that man is heir to and transforming him into an effective, violent, selective, and cold killing machine. Our soldiers must be thus; a people without hatred cannot vanquish a brutal enemy…Let us sum up our hopes of victory; total destruction of imperialism by eliminating its firmest bulwark, the oppression exercised by the United States of America…This means a long war. And, once more, we repeat it, a cruel war.�

Che saw his hatred as a reaction to the atrocities and injustices of American imperialism. He wanted all oppressed nations to live in freedom and create just communities for their people. He believed it could be done only by guerrilla war. Che was inviting his comrades to enter the cycle of violence that he believed would destroy oppression and lead to freedom and independence. Che, who was inspired by Communist ideology, also had great sympathy for working class people.

Che’s speeches were full of fire. They inspired young people to take up arms and get involved in guerrilla warfare to create a revolution as be believed in “bullets of propaganda�. Intense and passionate himself, he provoked passionate and intense emotional responses in others. His message was clear. He wanted complete destruction of American dominance which he saw as the backbone of international imperialism.

When guerrilla warriors are asked why they have so much hate in their personalities, they connect it with love. They say they hate injustice because they love justice; they hate human suffering because they love human happiness. They see their hatred as a means to an end. They believe in violence to create peace. Menachem Begin, who fought a guerrilla war against British colonialism to create a Jewish state, wrote in his political autobiography Revolt, “

Who will condemn the hatred of evil that springs from the love of what is good and just?...For if you love Freedom, you must hate Slavery; if you love your people, you cannot but hate the enemies that compass their destruction; if you love your country, you cannot but hate those who seek to annex it. Simply put: if you love your mother, would you not hate the man who sought to kill her; would you not hate him and fight him at the cost, if needs be, of your own life?
This is a fundamental human question in the violent and stormy world of today. Let every decent man search his soul and decently answer. Because ultimately the hope of every people lies in the readiness of its sons to stake their lives ‘for their mothers’--- for freedom which man loves, against serfdom which man hates and should hate in the name of his love.�

When we read these statements we can easily see the contradictions in the personalities of these guerrilla warriors. They rationalize their violence by connecting it with their idealistic dreams of peace, justice and freedom. They hate in the name of love. They kill in the name of life. That is why it is not unusual that they see themselves as freedom fighters while others see them as terrorists.

To understand the psychological nature of violence in guerrilla warfare we need to separate criminal violence from political violence. Criminal violence is exhibited by delinquents and those with psychopathic personalities who rob banks, steal money and confiscate the property of the innocent, for personal ulterior motives. On the other hand guerrilla warriors operate from political rather than personal motives. They are part of a political movement that seeks to create a revolution.

Guerrilla warriors set out to kill an oppressive and unjust political, social and economic system so that they can give birth to a just society and a fair system. They believe the old system is so corrupt and rigid that social reforms are not enough and the old system needs to be completely destroyed to create a new order.

Since the old system is well protected by the army, the police and the bureaucracy of the government and the military, it has to be demolished. Since the established system is violent and cruel, it has to be overthrown through a violent struggle. Guerrilla leaders seek to inspire the poor, the downtrodden and the oppressed working class to unite in nation-wide strikes to warn the ruling class that if they do not hand over their power willingly, that power will be taken away from them by force. As the ruling class increases its oppression and abuses of power, the oppressed become more violent and revengeful and pave the way for a violent revolution. Guerrilla warriors seek to bleed the colonial and imperialistic powers politically as well as economically to the point that they leave. Guerilla warriors are so committed and dedicated to the cause of revolution that they are not only willing to give their own lives but also take lives of others for their revolution. They believe that the ends justify the means. For them their ideals are sacred and they are willing to make all kinds of sacrifices to make their dream a reality. It is no surprise then that the same guerrilla warriors are one group’s heroes and the other group’s villains—terrorists in the eyes of some and freedom fighters in the eyes of others.

When we review the outcomes of all of the guerrilla wars of the 20th century, we realize that they were as different as the dreams of the guerrilla warriors who started them. They can be seen on a broad spectrum.

On the extreme left was the guerrilla war fought by Che Guevara and Fidel Castro against the USA-supported Batista regime, which resulted in a Communist state in Cuba.
On the extreme right was the guerrilla war fought by Osama bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri against the USSR. After the Russian army left, Osama bin Laden with the help of Mullah Omar and Taliban established a Theocratic state in Afghanistan.

In the middle was the guerrilla war fought by Nelson Mandela, creating the Secular Democratic state of South Africa.

It is also intriguing that the same Nelson Mandela, who was jailed by the White South African government as a terrorist, was released twenty-six years later as a freedom fighter, and ultimately awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. It is amazing how terrorists of one generation can become the freedom fighters of the next. As the political climate changes, so does the world opinion. While studying the psychology of guerrilla warriors I realized that they are intense people who provoke strong responses. They have the potential to hate as passionately as they love. That is why people either hate them intensely or love them passionately, either erect monuments to them or publicly hang them.