Terrorism : Terrorism And Terrorism

Ever since 9/11 when both World Trade Center buildings were attacked by an Islamic Group, attacks by Islamic Terrorist on U.S. soil have been less of a threat than Domestic Terrorists. Domestic Terrorism has been shown these passed for years but yet again most of these cases have not been classified as acts of Domestic Terrorism they most likely fall into the category. Now the definition of Domestic Terrorism is basically "the committing of terrorist acts in the perpetrator 's own country against their fellow citizens". Now personally I don 't know how our government is working with these popular cases like Charlottesville, Las Vegas, and a new that just happened recently actually two but I 'll just say one, the New York attack that

Terrorism is a common term used in the media and news everyday, especially in the United States. We are in a constant battle against ‘terrorism’, “Counterterrorism has to be woven into the everyday workings of every department. It should be included on the agenda of every meeting…” (Kelling & Bratton, 2006).

Terror has become a common feeling in today’s world. Music concerts and churches have become targets for terrorist activity. People are now thinking twice about their safety before leave home. In the book Terror In The Mind Of God by Mark Juergensmeyer, he starts off talking about different terror acts and how it has changed how he views the world. He says, "On a different day, at a different time, perhaps in a different bus, one of the bodies torn to shreds by any of these terrorist acts could have been yours or mine" (Juergensmeyer p. 3). He goes on to talk about how he feels betrayed that his "personal security and order that is usually a basic assumption of public life cannot in fact be taken for granted in a world where terrorist acts exit" (Juergensmeyer 3). Terrorism is a huge concern for Americans today. We hear on the news about church shootings and attacks on people attending an outdoor concert. We begin to feel unsafe going out in public and enjoying basic activities.

Since the attack on American soil the government issued the USA Patriot Act. This was created to deter and punish terrorist acts in and around the United States. It was also designed to enhanced law enforcement

Homegrown terrorism or domestic terrorism is commonly associated with violent acts committed by citizens or permanent residents of a state against their own people or property within that state without foreign influence in an effort to instill fear on a population or government as a tactic designed to advance political, religious, or ideological objectives.

The war on terror is not easy to define partly due to its vagueness and unsparing use of rhetorical device to justify any action of military perpetrated after the 9/11. However, the The war on terror, in its original intent, is a series of initiatives that seek to reduce or eliminate terrorism in the world. In this perspective, terrorism is the deliberate exploitation and creation of fear through threat and violence (Kugiel 16-17). This essay seeks to present an argument that the war on terror was not worth it.

Whether using a search engine, watching an online video, creating content on a social network, receiving an email, or playing an interactive video game, people are being digitally shadowed online. This data is combined with the time, length and frequency of visits and recorded by the providers. These abilities are being utilized by different companies, and by law, are required to give this information to the government if they require it. With an increase of reliability from society of technology, it is unreasonable that we are not given a choice when accessing said necessity. That we should be forced to give up any information in an unnegotiated trade of a provided necessity for private information. One of the many pieces of legislation that allowed for this expansion of control after 9-11 was the Patriot act. the Patriot act allows federal agents to follow sophisticated terrorists trained to evade detection and allows law enforcement to conduct investigations without tipping off terrorists. Although this is positive, it gives them more free rein in invasion of privacy, a sacrifice of privacy for security. For instance, the Patriot act allows “Federal agents to use "roving wiretaps" to investigate ordinary crimes, including drug offenses and racketeering. A roving wiretap can be authorized by a federal judge to apply to a particular suspect, rather than a particular phone or communications device.” This allows the government to track any communications possibly related to the suspect, even innocent bystanders. The Patriot act also allows federal agents to freely gather a citizen's library habits. The government states it is because most terrorist plan their attacks in a library, and that they can not become “safe havens” for terrorists. The Patriot act blantly allows for an increase of invasion of privacy. Some files released by Snowden show that

I was six months old when the Nine-Eleven terrorist attacks destroyed the World Trade Center. Personally, I don’t remember the day, but I know that many adults remember the exact situation they were in when they heard the news. Nine-Eleven opened the eyes of the United States regarding the horrors of terrorism and how devastating it can be to a country. Terrorism is one of the biggest problems facing Western countries at the moment that seems to have no easy solution. Terrorism sees a group trying to provoke change in a government or society with radical methods. Terrorism is not, however, an isolated incident of violence that has no connection to any radical organizations. The confusion about the merits of terrorism and general violence have created a tension in society that bring up unjust prejudices, specifically dealing with immigrants from the Middle East.

Terrorism is nothing new. So long as there has been a governing body in power, ruled by a few or by many, there are some people that won’t or can’t comply with that system and will use violence and the threat of violence for political and social change. Since the attacks on 911 the USA has increased its homeland security posture as well as its international search to root out terrorism. Terrorist organizations operate globally and are able to recruit just by the propaganda they advertise. A person can now be trained through the internet, construct a means of attack and kill indiscriminately without ever meeting who they claim allegiance to. There are more targets and means to attack those targets than ever before. Terrorists evolve and learn. As such, so must those that serve to counter it. The US has some of the best counterterrorism agencies, units and professionals the world has seen but sometimes terrorists successfully carry out their plans.

Whether one refers to the Terrorist organization as Islamic State(IS), Islamic State of Iraq and Syria(ISIS), Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant(ISIL). Terror is the main goal of this organization and inflicting fear and anquish has been the priority and objective since the birth of this group. Religous believes and political motives drives this group to bring pain and suffering not just to the United States, this pain knows no boundaries and reaches all depths and borders around the entire globe. Departments and Agencies dealing in Homeland Security have dealt with this issue since the inception of ISIS, proper channels have been developed to stopping and aiding in the submission of ISIS. However, stopping a terrorist organization

Sadly, terrorist attacks have become more common in our modern, industrialized world than any other time in history. Over the past few years, there has been a concentration of these savage events in major Western European countries such as, but not limited to, Great Britain, France, and Belgium. Powerful terrorist organizations, like ISIS, have used these highly developed nations as backdrops to inflict havoc on innocent tourists and civilians. Once a symbol of peace and prosperity, Western Europe is currently enveloped in a state of turmoil where people everywhere are fearful for their safety, the military and law enforcement officers are on high alert every second of the day, and the notion of personal freedoms and civility seems to be a distant memory. While some industry insiders and travel enthusiasts claim that travel to Western European countries is stable or improving, the dangerous circumstances that have arisen because of the onslaught brought on by terrorism have instead hurt the perception of Western Europe in many ways, leading to the potential downturn of travel to this region of the world.

The act of placing the public under surveillance has become common place and it is widely accepted that we have to give up some of our privacy for the greater good, such a case can be found in England where the majority of the country has been placed under surveillance by nearly 2 million CCTVs (closed circuit television). This number of cameras is expected to grow continuously into the foreseeable future. These actions put in place by their government has done very little to deter the growth of crime rather, this act has had only seemed to have displaced the growing crime rate into areas where there is lower security, namely, poorer areas, further damaging the already destitute neighborhoods. However despite the growth of crime in england the public for the most part have continued to feel the same amount of security. While a good thing on the surface this security theater can lead people into a false sense of security can cause individuals to take less precautions in day to day life leaving them an easy target for a criminal with malicious intent. This type of security theater has been used frequently by governments to lull the public into a false sense of security, an example of security theater would be the United States’ TSA (Transportation Security Administration), after numerous studies they have found that the TSA has a track record of less than a five percent success rate in finding explosives and weapons as sighted in an article by Ashley Halsey of The Washington Post. Why would such a broken system continue to exist with little to no improvement? The answer is the charade of protective actions being put in place despite the obvious lack of knowledge in how to actually improve

The September attacks on 9/11 sparked terror in America, the losses were devastating and the country laid in shock. The worst laid in the fact that the attacks could have been prevented. Al Qaeda took advantage of and exploited the United States lack of technology. Terrorist used online messaging to communicate and plan the attack with one another. If America had a surveillance program in place, the correspondence between terrorists could have been noted and the attacks prevented. In order to say in the know of terrorist activities, America had to spy on Al Qaeda, old fashioned human intelligence would not have been practical or very likely to succeed. With human intelligence, a believable identity had to be created, “they may have to pretend to be wealthy donors [or other radical fighters]… [,] overcome significant cultural barrier… [and work through a] significant language barrier”

The study of terrorism is as complex as the problem itself. How the many factors of terrorism, such as fear and popular support, are interwoven make this a difficult problem to understand, let alone defeat. With this in mind it becomes clear that understanding the problem is, perhaps, the all-important first step to defeating it. To that end, the five most important things about terrorism and counterterrorism I learned from this course are: 1) Our National Strategy for Counterterrorism is flawed, 2) Terrorism can be an effective tactic if executed properly, 3) Terrorism begets terrorism, 4) Media and terrorism are perpetually linked and 5) The importance of quickly collecting, analyzing and acting upon intelligence.

Terrorism can affect everyone at any time and place. Even when there is a threat being made in another country, halfway across the world, it affects everyone in some kind of way. It affects everyone because it is a threat to all the people in the world.