The term "cowardice" has two connotations: fear and dishonor. In Western literature, it has usually been associated with deserters: those who turn away from battle out of fear, thereby violating codes of honor and bravery that call for soldiers to face their enemy directly, even if it means certain death. This is also the dominant sense of the word in Islamic literature, e.g. "[A]nyone who gives them (i.e. the enemy in war) his back has come back with a great anger from Allah" [Qur'an 8/16]. However, the current notion that terrorists are cowards seems to rely more on their supposed violation of honor rather than their lack of bravery. For instance, one often finds the phrase "faceless cowards" (as in George W. Bush's proclamation honoring the victims of 9/11), suggesting that terrorism is considered a cowardly act because those who commit it refuse to be known or to face down their opponents directly.

This shift toward cowardice as dishonor (rather than lack of bravery in the face of death) is even more pronounced in discussions of suicide missions in which the attacker's death is a certainty. In such cases, cowardice becomes effectively a synonym for treachery. While this use of the term is not necessarily racialized in American usage (Timothy McVeigh and paramilitaries in Northern Ireland are also widely deplored as cowards), it does fit all too easily with centuries-old stereotypes of Arabs and Asians as treacherous and deceitful: consider the condemnation of Japanese as "sneaky" following Pearl Harbor, or the flare-up over lyrics characterizing Arabs as treacherous in Disney's Aladdin.

Bill Kirkpatrick is a Ph.D. candidate in Media and Cultural Studies at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Questions to Consider

• As the nature of warfare changes, with civilians as increasingly "legitimate" targets, and with armies developing the ability to bomb thousands without ever facing their opponents or putting themselves at risk, what codes of honor and bravery still apply?
• What separates the coward from the smart tactician, the pacifist, the bully, or the technologically underprivileged?

Related Links

• Them Against Fire, Suck.com, 10/30/2001

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