Research Paper on "War on Terrorism"

Research Paper 9 pages (2809 words) Sources: 4

[EXCERPT] . . . .

War on Terrorism:

Though it has been used since the beginning of recorded history, it is relatively hard to define terrorism. However, terrorism is a planned use of illegitimate violence to instill fear, targeted to intimidate government or societies in the hunt of goals that are generally political or religiously motivated by sub-national groups or undercover agents. Terrorism can also be defined as planned violence that is politically motivated aimed against non-battalion targets by national groups with an intention of causing psychological impacts on a large audience.

This kind of violence tends to function in small units and make the most use of home-based bombs, car bombs and other arsenals uncharacteristic of military workforce like in the case of the September 11, 2001 attack. As a form of violence, terrorism has always been used as an effective tactic for the weaker side in a conflict. By and large, global terrorism has always been carried out by terrorists' organizations which are secretive and small size in nature. As a result of the secretive nature and small size of these organizations, they usually offer opponents with no apparent organization to defend against or to deter their attacks.

Regardless of the nature of terrorist attacks and their intentions, terrorism is generally a scandalous act which influences an audience beyond the immediate victim. Terrorists not only commit acts of violence to draw the attention of the general public, the government, and the world but to also obtain the greatest publicity ("What is Terrorism?" par, 5). This is because the efficacy of the terrorist acts is on the public's or government's reaction to the act rather than the act itself. For instance, eleven Israelis were killed in the 1972 Munich Olympics by the Black September Organization. Though the Israelis were the immediate victims, the actual target was the estimated 1 billion people who were watching the televised event.

Nonetheless, it's important to note that there are three perspectives of terrorism, which are the terrorist's, the victim's, and the general public's perspective. In the terrorists' perspective, terrorists do not consider themselves as evil because of their belief that they are legitimate fighters who fighting are for what they believe in, by whatever means possible. However, the victim's perspective views the terrorist as a criminal with no regard for human life. On the other hand, the general public's point-of-view is the most unstable as terrorists try to influence the general public's point-of-view toward their cause.

Factors that have contributed to the Rise of Terrorism:

There are several factors which have contributed to the rise of global terrorism and particularly terrorist attacks against the United States. Notably, most of the terrorist attacks have often been directed against the United States. Some of these factors include:

Islamic Radicalism:

In a country like the United States, various factors have contributed to the rise of terrorism with Islamic radicalism being one of the major contributors. In the recent past, Islamic fundamentalist groups have been on the fore front in the attacks which have hit America. These groups have engaged themselves in terrorist attacks against America on the accounts that they are dissatisfied with the westernization patterns of the U.S. As well as America's involvement in the internal affairs of Muslim countries.

America's Super-power Position:

These young men turn to terrorism as a way of expressing their dissatisfaction with the government plans of dealing with their issues. America has also been the target of many terrorist groups because of it being considered as a meddling super power. Terrorist groups' especially Islamic fundamentalist groups have been recruiting people through the means of spreading anti-American sentiments to their population via the Internet. The other factor that has led to the rise of global terrorism is the fact that dissatisfied youths feel left out of the government plans.

Confronting Terrorism:

The rise of global terrorism has been rapid in the last two centuries due to the fact that terrorism has evolved from a tactic into a strategy. Consequently, there has been a great need of strategically fighting and getting rid of international terrorism. As the world's super power, the United States has been on the fore front in this war against terrorism and the interest of terrorists. In fact, the goal of the United States in the fight against terrorism is to get rid of the threat of global terrorism and other interest of the terrorists. Notably, the goal of getting rid of global terrorism is designed to be achieved through the various worked down plans. There are a number of ways through which the United States can effectively confront terrorism such as

Improving Intelligence Services:

Recently, the U.S. Department of Homeland security has embraced a more solid role in coordinating a more logical domestic security policy. At the same time, the U.S. intelligence agencies have improved their capacity in sharing information with the hope of devising a more unified front to combat terrorism with superior intelligence analysis. The United States can also confront terrorism by effectively pre-arranging the military, intelligence services and other national as well as international agencies towards performing specialized tasks aimed at confronting terrorism. America can also confront terrorism effectively by reforming the intelligence services since the intelligence department has been playing a key role in the fight against terrorism. This department of homeland security, which has been mandated with the responsibility of reforming the intelligence services, can also help in the fight by embracing International Corporation to effectively handle terrorism.

Comprehensive Military Strategies:

The United States government has allocate the country's police department with the responsibility of dealing with terrorism in a more specialized way that does not violate the rule of law since global terrorism has local consequences. America can effectively confront terrorism by developing a continuous and comprehensive military approach strategy. There is a need of developing these evolving strategies due to the fact that terrorists and terrorists' groups are non-conventional armies who rarely put on uniforms. It is therefore difficult and challenging to identify these terrorists.

Due to this need of comprehensive military strategies, the United States recently formed a formidable group to look into the roles and limitations facing the military in their attempts of fighting terror. The formidable task force was established with the aim of looking for possible and functional solutions of handling the challenges faced by the military. The identification and solution to these challenges as well as the establishment of comprehensive military strategies will effectively help in the fight against terrorism.

Economic Sanctions and Freezing of Accounts:

It is apparent that terrorism activities cannot be in operation without finances since terrorist acts and activities are financially supported by various individuals, businesses and governments. Economic sanctions and freezing the accounts of the sponsors of terrorism are one of the most suitable ways of fighting global terrorism. The establishment of terrorist finance and legal response among other groups is a key step in helping to eradicate international terrorism. The terrorist finance and legal response has been mandated with the task of advising the government and the financial community on the measures they need to take in order to complicate the access of finances by terrorists' organizations for their operations.

After the September 11 terrorist attack, it was discovered that t a lot of money had been used to facilitate the operation of the attacks according to a report. Consequently, the then U.S. President, George W. Bush signed an executive order that froze the assets of the 27 terrorists, terrorist organizations and the terrorist financiers linked with the Al-Qaeda and blocked U.S. from making any transactions with such people or their entities. Later, the order was later amended by adding 39 new names and organizations which were allegedly conducting or supporting terrorism activities (Taylor par, 12).

Since then, the United States government in collaboration with other nations has managed to freeze almost $4million as well as the review of other accounts around the globe. Currently, other nations are still seeking to identify the assets of terrorists and have promised to freeze. The freezing of these assets and accounts of terrorists, terrorist organizations and terrorist financiers has helped in the fight against global terrorism. This effort of freezing assets has been successful with more than 111 nations joining in choking off the oxygen of money for terrorists.

The designation of the Foreign Terrorism Organizations (FTOs) is a further tool that has been in countering terrorism fund raising. Foreign Terrorism Organizations (FTOs) makes it a criminal offence for any person subjected to U.S. jurisdiction to make any contributions to terrorist groups. This step has helped in confronting terrorism since any person implicated with such an offence faces the risk of his assets being frozen followed by visa denial. America has also urged other nations to constrict their own laws and regulations to restrain terrorism fundraising and money transfers using tools like these. Other countries such as Great Britain already have already tightened up their laws and regulations with countries like Canada, Greece, India, and the Philippines having… READ MORE

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