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Counter Terrorism Course Analysis

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I learned various forms, perspectives, and policies pertaining to terrorism in this course. Some of the statistics about counter-terrorism, the source of terrorists, and the background of terrorist were expected. I expected terrorist to come from unstable homes. I even expected terrorist groups to be led by the upper middle class because of education and resources availability. The most unexpected information I learned in this course was how terrorist groups end. The government, as part of the War on Terror, makes it seem like the military is the most important aspect of ending a terrorist group. Our nation spends billions of dollars on the multiple branches of the military. Various resources, funds, time and agencies are utilized in the pursuit of counter-terrorism. Finding out that local policing and change in politics are the two top ways terrorist groups end was shocking. This was shocking because every time a successful counter-terrorism attack …show more content…

Headlines mention keywords like special ops or special forces to describe the group of men and women involved in successfully counter terrorism. An example of this is the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden. The media stressed that the terrorist leader was captured by a team of 6 special forces Navy Seals. Navy Seal Robert J O’Neil being the key figure of headlines after the death of bin Laden. Learning in class that using military force for counter-terrorism is ineffective and could possibly lead to insurgency was surprising. Due to the media’s reports, I, like most Americans, assumed that the military was most effective before this course. In truth terrorist changing to nonviolent means of reaching goals accounts for 43 percent of ending terrorist groups. Local policing accounts for about 40 percent of terrorist groups ending. Yet the media does not to report on either of these counter-terrorist

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