Terrorism Course Reflection

Security measures drastically increased after 9/11. 9/11 was an act of terrorism that would change the way the country handled privacy. Americans needed to voice their opinions after this happened and have their own rights protected. The need to protect individual rights is the utmost important aspect in a thriving U.S. society.

The fear of being racially profiled and being linked to terrorism is an issue for Americans ever since the attack on 9/11, and other residents that are in our country from other nations like Iran (Muslims). The Muslims or Iran is being targeted by any and everyone who seem to hold the whole nation accountable for 9/11 attack. But is racial profiling of their religious or other Muslims belief a reason that we should hide behind to justify profiling them? Within this discussion this learner will try to explain why this may or may not be right to fear Muslims or any other person who is from a different nation.

How has this course influenced your daily habits, beliefs, and actions, i.e. your world-view? Understanding the political nature of terrorism has helped me to understand numerous different social issues. Understanding of terrorism is not irrational, but emerges from genuine political disagreement is incredibly helpful. By this same logic, I now understand that criticism of protest movements, like black lives matter; often miss .the underlying structural point that there is systemic discrimination. This does not justify burning cars or looting buildings, but these problems cannot really be solved with police crackdowns. Instead, they can be solve with a genuine attempt to understand where these people are coming from. Instead of demonizing the protestor, we should seek to understand and empathize with them to achieve mutual understanding and encourage positive

Terrorism and the United States A cloud of anthrax spores looming in the sky of San Diego California

Terrorism is an intentional act of causing uncertainty and fear through violence which is not only experienced by direct affectees but also sometime experienced and effects friends and family of survivors and victim and those who got exposed to it through media. Similarly in this study, it is measured operationally in terms of frequency data of those respondents who have experienced terrorism directly or first hand, second hand and do not have any direct experience.

In the last two decades, the United States has experienced disastrous terrorist incidents. Including 9/11, the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, and the 2015 San Bernardino shooting, these incidents have varied in the scale, location, weapon used but have all had the same goal; to harm Americans and put fear the minds of everyone else. Before September 11th, 2001, there had never been a large attack on the continental United States of America. Our first responders have new threats and must be put through rigorous trainings in order to try and minimize the risks.

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

Our country, the United States of America, has been shaken up by the current event that occurred Wednesday December 2, 2015. In our very own state, a shooting occurred in San Bernardino County. The massacre occurred in a holiday party where fourteen people were killed and twenty-one people were left wounded. The suspects behind this terror were a married muslim couple, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik who opened fired on their co-workers. However, they were soon killed in a gun battle with the police. In the article, “Obama Seeks to Calm Americans on Terror Threat, but Speech Underscores Challenges” by Michael A. Mamoli, it states that President Obama addressed the nation from the oval office stating that the shooting “… was an act of

In all honesty, I had never read into this subset of terrorism in any great detail. However a glaring statement in some of our weekly reading caught my eye. "(A)groterrorism has remained a secondary consideration, and no documented attacks in the homeland have occurred since 9/11." (Olsen 2012). Perhaps the author sees things differently than I, but the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) has staged attacks since 9/11 - that is if one considers arson to be acts of terrorism (History Commons n.d.). Again, one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter. In this case, at least the FBI agrees with me that ELF and the similar group Animal Liberation Front (ALF) are domestic terror groups (FBI 2002). Granted, the ALF/ELF attacks that one could identify as agroterrroism is an attack where cattle hauling trucks were burned by ALF, but they have targeted fish farms in the past.

I interviewed three people for this assignment; a 74-year-old woman, a 74-year-old man, and a 52-year-old woman. I wanted to get answers from two different generations so I could compare and contrast their answers. I also added a few questions that pertain to this week’s discussion board posts which I thought would be interesting. All of the participants had general knowledge of terrorism prior to the 9/11 attack, but made it clear that they didn’t think it would ever happen in the United States. I then asked if they were worried about terrorism. The shared response was no, that they felt relatively safe and secure in the United States. None of the participants worked in law enforcement, so their everyday jobs did not change at all after the terrorist attack. When asked what

According to a Pew Research Center poll, 76% of Americans believed terrorism should be America’s top priority, prevailing over issues like the environment (55%) and climate change (38%) (Pew Research Center). However, the chances “of dying in an attack by a foreign-born terrorist is 0.00003%,” which is a wholly insignificant number compared to the lives affected by climate change (CATO Institute). Why, then, do Americans continue to be adamant about terrorism despite the statistics? The answer potentially lies in the form in which most Americans receive their news. Constant, sensationalized media coverage of terrorist attacks and our own President’s travel ban rhetoric work to instill a belief that terrorism is the most important issue Americans face; however, not only is this falsely construed, but the media’s lack of coverage on issues like the environment and climate change have a devastating effect on the public’s awareness on such a pressing issue. An independent study in 2012 by DARA International found that over 400,000 deaths a year are linked to climate change, and projects deaths to increase to over

Have you ever had a fear for your family, your town, your country, or your world. How about the fear to have everything taken from you, destroyed, and not caring if it has hurt you or not? What about your fear and pain is, and can be someone else’s happiness? The fear of you being terrorized? That is terrorism. Someone else bringing fear and terrorizing you. That is a terrorist’s goal. Terrorism is common and is very difficult to stop. The government promises protection for the people, and their home, but they can not give that protection if they can not stop terrorism. Terrorism needs to stop to protect the live of the people, and their country.

The government can implement many new methods to increase security, or better yet give off the image of better security which is what they have predominantly done, yet ultimately there will always be a way to bypass or come up with a new way to infiltrate that measure. The government so far has done a variety of things ranging from the closing of the Dulles airport (permanently), working with the FAA on new security measures, having pilots carry handguns, and a not so specific, profiling.

In order for the United States of America and its allies to live a life free of terrorist threats, they need to counter violent extremism and terrorism with swift and deliberate prevention efforts world-wide.

It is ironic that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia continue to sign historic agreements meant to confront current and emerging threats coming from terrorist financing the latter is one of the biggest state sponsors of terrorism. The creative responses that they create continue to formalize cooperation between them to counter terrorist financing. However, this is a lose-lose partnership since donors in Saudi Arabia continue to fund Sunni terrorist groups across the world. The U.S. has to understand that the state’s passivity toward terrorist groups is critical to their success as any form of deliberate assistance they access. The U.S. cannot proclaim to be the world leader in fighting terrorism yet the government continues to be the ultimate “state sponsor” of those who fund terrorism (Casaca & Wolf, 2017). According to Chossudovsky (2013), groups such as the House of Saud have been supported by the U.S. government in the past in full knowledge that the Saudi monarchy funds Al Qaeda. The U.S. government should be viewed as a “State sponsor of Terrorism” given its reluctance to evaluate its relationship with Saudi Arabia.