Terrorism Essay
I wrote the following essay for the Superintendent's Sophomore Social Studies and English writing promt in the beginning of December, 2004. There is no bibliography, and no plagiarism contained within it. If for some ungodly reason you want to link to it, you may, but if you reference it please let me know (along with a link, if possible) and give me credit. Politic-type papers really are a bitch for me to write. Enjoy.
Prompt: Terrorism is a major threat to world peace and stability and must be dealt with accordingly.
Terrorism is a global problem. Hunter S. Thompson said, “Terrorists don't wear uniforms, and they play by inscrutable rules — The Rules of World War III, which has already begun." There is no doubt that terrorism offsets a society’s balance, and that it will continue until appropriate measures are taken to prevent it.
What is terrorism? This is not an easy term to define while covering all of its important aspects and features. The American Heritage Dictionary describes it as, “the unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.” All the definitions used by the United States FBI, State Department, and Department of Defense vary, but touch on the identity, motives, and methods of “terrorists”. Terrorism is usually aimed at an audience, which was implied with terrorist expert Brian Jenkins’ statement in 1984, “Terrorism is theater.”
In the United States, the word “terrorism” is most often used hand-in-hand with the events of September 11, 2001, but it is no new aspect. The word “terrorism” itself was contrived during France’s Reign of Terror when the leaders praised terror as the best way to defend liberty. Terrorism, then, initially held a positive meaning. Many early examples of terrorism are of religious roots, such as in the first century Middle East during the Roman occupation when the Jewish groups the Sicari and the Zealots killed in front of witnesses in order to send a message to the Roman authorities and those Jews who treasonably cooperated with them. The 11th century Assassins also killed in public to send a message, often on holy days to publicize and incite others to their cause. Civilians murdered by the Thuggee cult in seventh-century India were used as sacrifices to the goddess Kali.
We must remember that there are many different types of terrorism with different goals. Six of these many types are national, religious, state-sponsored, left-wing, right-wing, and anarchist terrorism. Nationalist terrorism exists within groups such as the IRA, the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Basque Fatherland and Liberty, and other groups that want to form a separate state of their own national group or force out “invaders” and often draw attention to a world-ignored fight for “national liberation.” Many of these groups claim, and not always incorrectly, that they are “freedom fighters” and not terrorists. Religious terrorism uses violence to advance purposes that they believe are divinely commanded. State-sponsored terrorism was evident in 1979 when the Iranian government used “independent young militants” to seize hostages at Tehran’s American embassy. Hoffman defines this type of terrorism as “a cost-effective way of waging war covertly, through the use of surrogate warriors or ‘guns for hire.’” Left-wing terrorism occurs when the terrorists see capitalist exploitation causing civilian suffering and wish to replace this harmful capitalism with a socialist or communist regime. Right-wing terrorism seeks to create fascist, or dictatorial, states in the place of liberal democratic governments. Neo-Nazi street rioting in Western Europe is often associated with right-wing terrorism. Anarchist terrorism seeks to overthrow established governments. President William McKinley was a victim of this type of violence when a young Hungarian refugee influenced by anarchist views killed him in 1901.
Fear is bred by terrorism within the civilian population. A few of these fears are the fears of foreigners, going places, questioning the government’s “facts”, “reasons”, and consequences for its acts, as well as a fear of self-expression when anything could suggest that a person is unpatriotic or pro-terrorist. In “The Anatomy of Terrorism”, George Schultz explains that terrorists and those that support them have definite goals that are attained by terrorist violence. He says that we must deny terrorists their violence, “but above all we must deny them their goals.” Wouldn’t one of these goals be the fear? If the civilians are not afraid, wouldn’t that mean that their “terrorism” has failed? This could be a hard concept to grasp, as many would not believe that a person is capable of not fearing such things. It is simple, however, if only the civilian population is able to honestly trust their government and their own values and morals.
Terrorism is something that must be dealt with. Terrorists are now more likely than ever to acquire and use biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons. The U.S. claims to be involved in a “War on Terrorism”, but the American view of terrorism is mainly self-centered. The American suggestion that al Qaeda plans to pursue a revolt against the globe is not high priority in many other countries whose worries are more close to home. Some notorious, active terror groups in Europe alone are the Real IRA, the ETA, and the November 17 group. The goal of the Real IRA is to cause a total British withdrawal from Northern Ireland by disrupting the peace process. The ETA in Spain has had recent hits on civilian and tourist targets, and the November 17 group in Greece has performed continued attacks as well.
Not enough attention is paid to what motivates acts of terrorism. Something important to be considered is that the events of September 11, 2001 could have been prevented. Anti-interventionists warned about the possibility of terrorist attack for years. Our government tells Americans that Islamists hate us because we love freedom. They may envy us, but there are plenty of jealous people who don’t attack us just because we are “better off”. If jealousy were the reason behind terrorism, then domestic terrorism such as the Oklahoma City Bombing, the suspected pipebombing during the Atlanta Olympics, and the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway would never have occurred.
The reasons behind terrorism are in fact far from a question of jealousy. The Islamists themselves explain their hatred with regards to the United States intervening in their societies. The Pentagon’s Defense Science Board, as well as President Clinton, has acknowledged that American involvement in international situations is strongly linked to increased terrorism against the United States. If the United States were to follow a course of military and economic restraint overseas, the chance of devastating terrorist attacks could be reduced.
Terrorism has existed for a long time, in many places and many forms. Terrorism is harmful to society and must be prevented. Prevention of terrorism cannot be accomplished until the people are further educated and the government takes smart, mature action. Just saying you are in a war on terrorism does not improve the situation if the government and its people continue to be hypocritical and blind. The best way to stop terrorism is to stop practicing it, and stop engaging in conduct that causes it.
https://www.angelfire.com/ill/raspberryblu
December 2004