Table of Contents
Introduction
Terrorism can be defined as the threat to use violence against unarmed civilians for political or religious reasons (Nance, 2016). The mere thought of terrorism makes any state shaver in fear, as any violent act aimed at the civilians makes it really hard to predict or prevent and if the attack happens it usually ends in a lot of causalities (Nance, 2016). Globalization, the rapid growth of technology and the cities have made citizens more vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Terrorists have changed their tactics and adopted more sophisticated and harder to predict methods. Terrorist attacks can come in different forms like arson, carjacking, suicide bombers mass shooting among many forms.
Ways that the U.S. has attempted to counter the threat of terrorism
The United States has come up with several measures to respond to terrorism. These measures include coming up with long-term plans to modify the demographic, cultural, and religious background of terrorism (Cacho, 2012). The United States has resorted to proactive methods like preventing the problem at the source; this includes activities like seeking out and distracting terrorist activities. The next and most curtail step that the United States has taken in responses to terrorism is the prevention measures put in action such as protecting public buildings mass gatherings and places that are considered easy targets. The Nation has also come up with an effective response and recovery routine in case of any attack (Cacho, 2012).
The United States has involved all elements of its power to counter terrorism. Other than the use of military power the nation also use diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and police department activities to protect the country and extend the country’s defenses and deny the nation’s enemies the basic needs that they need to operate and survive (Cacho, 2012).
Terrorism has changed and is continuing to change as globalization continues. With the fight against terrorism is gaining a lot of support, it has led to the terrorists being dispersed and less centralized (Nance, 2016). This has made terrorism more dangerous as they have resulted in creating smaller cells and the cells do not necessarily have a direct command structure (Nance, 2016).
The danger in the definition of terrorism changing over time
As much as the United States and other nations around the world have been able to stop many attacks from happening they have not been successful in preventing all of them (Nance, 2016). Terrorists have been successful in striking havoc in most places in the world from New Deli to France (Nance, 2016). As much as nations prone to terrorist attacks have improved their military forces and border security, their Homeland is not immune from terrorist attacks (Nance, 2016).
Terrorist’s organizations like ISIS have sworn to use weapons of mass distraction to cause the maximum damage to the United States and their allies (Nance, 2016). Countries like Syria and Qatar are the nations that make the terrorists more dangerous since they harbor terrorists and sponsor their activities abroad (Nance, 2016). In Iraq there has been a fight going on about freedom and the terrorists are capitalizing on it and coming up with propagandas to better suit their agenda. The same case is happening in Libya and the current instability in the nation is a breeding ground for terrorists. The use of internet has increased terrorist activities since recruitment, training, and spread of propaganda has been very easy.
Terrorism has led to increased surveillance on citizens
It was always rumored that the United States government using the NSA used to spy on its own citizens, but since 911 terrorist attacks it is no longer a rumor people are certain that they are being spied on by the government and there is nothing they can do about it (Sulick, 2012). This is because they believe the government is doing all they can to protect them.
From the recent terrorist attacks in France, it is without a doubt the French government is taking drastic action (Sulick, 2012). The newspaper Le Monde recently reported that the government was spying on its own citizens (Sulick, 2012). The newspaper claimed that the government had access to all phone calls emails and text messages and stored them for future references. In Syria the spying is in a whole new level, the two main internet companies are owned by the president and they do record all data both offline and online (Sulick, 2012). In short, they control what goes on the internet and it helps the government to stop protests.
Way to truly defeat terrorism
Terrorism can easily be defeated through a plan that consists of the following crucial elements: intelligence, integration, and development (Nance, 2016). Intelligence; executing a terrorist attack can be considered relatively easy. In these modern times, there are so many ideal targets such as crowded airports and bus stations during peak hours, dining establishments or even arenas such as stadiums and music concerts (Nance, 2016). The ideal lethal tools to be used are also too many including suicide vests, automatic guns or even a truck ramming into innocent people. The chances of protecting everyone in such cases are next to impossible. The measures taken should be intelligent in order to prevent such terrorist attacks from occurring.
One should understand how a terrorist organization functions. Get to understand their ways of operating and constantly be updated about their developments in terms of using technology to conduct their attacks (Nance, 2016). This is the smartest way to stop an attack.
Integration is important in preventing an attack because certain festivities and holidays end up causing people from different religious, ethnic and cultural backgrounds to interact and coexist together in harmony (Nance, 2016). Relating with one another enables an individual to get rid of all the animosity between different religious groups and hence the likeliness of a terrorist attack occurring is reduced considerably. As simple as it may be, integration is crucial in preventing an attack.
Development is the last factor; a controversy surrounding terrorism is that it is funded by rich and wealthy people. People in powerful positions are sometimes associated with funding terrorist groups. However, the millions of people living in poverty and unemployment in extreme places like Somalia or Afghanistan are the ones who end up joining and conducting terrorist activities.
- Cache, L. M. (2012). Social death: Racialized rightlessness and the criminalization of the unprotected. New York: New York University Press.
- Nance, M. W. (2016). Defeating ISIS: Who they are, how they fight, what they believe. New York : Skyhorse Publishing.
- Sulick, M. J. (2012). Spying in America: Espionage from the Revolutionary War to the dawn of the Cold War. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.