Terrorism Essay

The U.S sent troops to Afghanistan and President W. Bush declares a ‘ War on Terror .’ Bush says in his speech that he will give supplies to the starving men and women and children. Bush also says that he will bring the taliban to justice.

Countries need allies to succeed and thrive. The more allies a country has, the more power it gains and the more powerful it becomes. When a country is involved with multiple strong alliances, the country is typically very powerful. During wars, alliances are often strengthened and even formed. The United States had several alliances during the Afghanistan War that strengthened because of the war. One alliance that strengthened during the war was the alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States. The U.S. and the United Kingdom have had a long history. The two countries have a unique relationship that serves as political, economical, and military allies, which may partially explain how and why the United Kingdom was involved

Afghanistan once served as a base for the terror group that carried out the horrific attacks of 9/11, Al Qaeda , and its leader, Osama Bin Laden. The United States invaded and since then has killed Bin Laden

After the 9/11 attacks in the United States, the War on Terror was the strategy that the Bush government developed with the aim to defeat the organization that had accomplished this, Al Qaeda. The immediate response of the Bush Administration after the attack was the invasion of Afghanistan, with the goal of eliminating and expel the targets that had made the country their sanctuary. This group was presented as the main threat of the 21st century, and as the enemy at the global scale. However, the idea of the War on Terror did not employ only in the Afghan context, the Islamic terrorist threat was spread through nine principal theatres . A new phenomenon had appeared in the international context, the Global Jihad , and the terrorist

As Afghan opposition groups and U.S. armed forces continue their successes in the war against the Taliban and al Qaeda, the American debate has quickly turned to the question of where the fight against terrorism should go next. In numerous public statements, President Bush has talked about a wide-ranging campaign against global terrorism. He has not committed to military operations against any other countries or terrorist organizations, but he has made it clear that the broader struggle against terrorism will be a long-lasting effort that could include the use of military force in regions beyond Afghanistan.

Terrorism is defined as the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion. It’s a problem that the United States and other countries have dealt with since before 9/11 but more significantly afterwards. On September 11, 2001, there was a series of four attacks by the Islamic terrorist group known as al-Qaeda. Two planes crashed into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and a third crashed into the Pentagon, which houses the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense in Virginia. There was a fourth plane that was on track to Washington, D.C. but crashed into field in Pennsylvania. Several lives were lost, a total of 2,977 according to a CNN report. However 9/11 was only the beginning of terrorist attacks. Although 9/11 happened in the United Sates, terrorist attacks are felt worldwide and happen in countries other than the U.S. Recently, there have been terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels. In 2015-16 alone there have been 10 known terrorist attacks in places such as Syria, Nigeria and Iraq, which doesn 't include the minuscule ones that the media doesn 't cover. I will describe the beginnings of terrorism. Second, I will show the influence of religion on terrorism, particularly Islam. Lastly, describe the effects of terrorism on different parts of the world and its causes.

Terrorism can be defined and viewed in many different ways. As discussed in “Terrorism and Political Violence,” by Alex Schmid, there are multiple frameworks in which terrorism can be defined (Schmid 2010, 197). In Schmid’s article, he discusses the five ways he feels terrorism can be looked at, terrorism as/and politics, terrorism as/and crime, terrorism as/and warfare, terrorism as/and communication and terrorism as/and religious fundamentalism (Schmid 2010, 197). This is interesting because it explores the concept of terrorism in different lenses, where each has its own motives, its own background and its own participants. This is important to understand because not every act of terrorism is done in the same light and for the same purposes. Just as any other crime, there are reasons behind the act. When studying terrorism, understanding motives makes all the difference, and understanding what is at stake for the attacker or the attacked helps fully conceptualize the matter.

should continue combat because Al Qaeda was the source of the terrorist attacks in the U.S. and not the Taliban. If the U.S. military continued to comeback in Afghanistan there were approaches that had to be discussed, like air or ground attacks (Ryan 2016.) Also, should the U.S. military intensify their engagement or scale it back? By winter 2013, Obama’s administration decided to limit their interference with Al Qaeda operations, which reduces their presence in Afghanistan (Ryan 2016.) This decision brought conflicted relationships between the White House and Afghanistan 's past President Hamid Karzai (Ryan 2016.) The U.S. and President had issues before this limitation of military support. This issue was Karzai’s refusal to sign a Sate of Force Agreement (SOFA) between Afghanistan and the United States (Ryan 2016.) This is an important symbol to both U.S. allies in Afghanistan and NATO (Ryan 2016.) By spring 2014, Washington planned to end the war by 2016, even if the SOFA does not get signed (Ryan 2016.) The U.S. had authority to only support and get fully involved with the battle between Afghanistan and the Taliban.

Some Background to the Afghanistan War is that during 1970’s Afghanistan became pro-soviet and a communist nation. However the fundamentalist Islamic group known as the Mujaheddin strongly opposed the government. The Soviets wanted to help their ally resist this threat but did not particularly want to send soldiers. However in 1979 when Hafizullah Amin came to power in Afghanistan he started to look towards the West, in particular America to help deal with this threat.

While terrorism dates back to around 1 BCE, it has become much more prominent in our everyday lives within the past few decades. We are constantly worried about the next attack, when it is going to happen, and where it will be. Whether it is physical or cyber, terrorism is one of the top concerns for the United States. Although it is extremely difficult to define, the U.S. Department of Defense describes it as “the calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological objectives” (Hoffman, 31). While it is hard for us to understand why someone would cause something as horrific as 9/11 or the Paris bombing, terrorists believe that they are doing good and helping the world. They are very methodical, have missions, rules and regulations, followers, and goals that they want to achieve. The goals of terrorism are to evoke fear, fight for religious, ideological, or political change, and to obtain worldwide recognition for what they have done.

While these standards of comparison does not eliminate all the enigma, they enable us to answer some of the questions. Terrorism differs from ordinary crime in its political purpose and in its primary objective. The wide definition these philosophers adopt contain the word ‘violence’, which itself is a topic of endless debate. The crux of terrorism lies, however, in its motive and the modus operandi for their achievement.

As stated by President Bush, while addressing the nation post 9/11, he explained that the, “enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country”, that this was not simply an act of aggression rather an act of war, and so the war on terror became a reality. He later proceeds by explaining that the “War on Terror” will not be waged against a country but instead it will be waged against the individual groups regardless of their location; “the United States respects the people of Afghanistan…but we condemn the Taliban regime” ( Bush Addresses the Nation). “Our war on terror begins with al-Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated”, and so the war began (Bush Addresses the Nation).

Terrorism has existed for many years and was known to have begun as early as the first century when a group of Jews who wanted to overthrow the Roman leader and did so by committing acts of murder. As time and society evolved terrorism became even more widespread, progressing throughout the globe. Terrorism has evolved since the early years after the death of Christ, with the rise of Islam, and into the 21st century during a time that terrorism is at an all-time high. Given the increased coverage of terrorism throughout the world is due to the upsurge of financing that is received by many extremist’s groups. Gaining these methods of terrorism is not hard and often times results in innocent individuals or organizations being illegally extorted

It should be remembered that the Afghan refugee problem existed long before Sept. 11. Looking back, the United States made a very serious moral error in helping the Afghans against the Soviets but then simply walking away from the country when the Russians were defeated. In effect, we used the Afghans as a Cold War weapon and then discarded them. Now we´re dealing with the consequences. But the factionalism, killing and refugee problems in Afghanistan preceded American involvement, and the chaos since 1989 cannot be laid exclusively, or even primarily, at America´s doorstep. Certainly the world´s wealthy Muslim countries have not seemed to distinguish themselves in solving

Right now America is faced with a big challenge: to stop terrorism for good. Thus she has decided to fight the war on terrorism and logically the first part is in Afghanistan