INTROImagine yourself flying in a plane to US for a summer job. You are travelling to experience new country, job, to meet new friends from all over the world. And you think that you are really happy to be in that position.
Everything seems to be perfect in your life, except some insignificant details. But all of a sudden an armed psycho puts a gun barrel to your head and proclaims that he wants to change the plane course, and if this will not be done he will kill you. You never know how serious his intentions can be. You begin to fell panic realizing that you can die very soon.
What will happen next? Will the pilot change the course? Will the mad guy kill you to show others that his intentions are serious and just grab a new victim? Or will he explode a bomb and everyone in the plane will die? You never know. Most of you probably have already understood that today I am going to talk to you about terrorists and their actions. I am doing a research paper for my written communications class and I have read much information about the issue. So, my speech will consist of three points.
1st I’ll explain the definition of terrorism and some background of it. 2ndly I’ talk about 4 major types of terroristsFinally We’ll look at some actions that governments do to prevent terrorism. —————————————————1————————————————————-In every kind of society, in all periods of history, there are people who are not satisfied with the laws, rules, regulations, politics or social situation. Some of them cannot find legal ways to make themselves noticeable, or to change something. The legal ways like working, seeking a good career seem to them ineffective, or they simply do not have appropriate attitudes for them. Therefore, they choose the way of violence and arrogance directed against the peaceful people.
The people, who practice violence against the others to make an influence on government in order to reach their financial or political goals, are called terrorists. Their actions are called terrorism. Nowadays, there are more and more peaceful people suffering because of the different forms of terrorism all over the world. Terrorism is a rather old phenomenon.
Even in the first century AD, in Palestine, there was a sect of the Sicarians, which used to kill the Jews who had common deals with the Romans ( Boltunov). In the nineteenth century Philosophy of the bomb prevailed. This philosophy supported the principle by which small groups of people would be able to cause the very maximum of chaos (quot. Encyclopaedia Britannica p. 232). ——————————————————-2——————————————————–First of all, there are terrorists who are fanatics.
They act this way because of their strong believes about certain kinds of politics or religion. They are sure that their actions will bring a benefit to their country and will help to change the life people in a good way. They believe that they are fighting for right moral principles. There were some peaceful victims during the action. Usually, it is necessary to pay with blood for the better future (quot. Boltunov M.
p. 32). Second, very common type of the terrorists is sadists. The people who do not accept any rules and regulations at all. They hate to be controlled by somebody.
They do not care about the people’s lives. They need power, and they prefer to reach it by using violence. Usually such people prefer to take hostages. It is real pleasure for them to feel that they have a right to decide who will be killed, and who will stay alive. Third main group includes the people who have different kinds of mental problems.
The mental thinking of such people may also include the moral features of the terrorists from both of the previously mentioned types. They also seek power and act fanatically. Their logical conclusions are mostly unpredictable, therefore, it is quite difficult to fight with them. They are called maniacs. Beside these three main groups, there are also many single terrorists who act because of their personal motivations. It is impossible to describe all of them.
They can vary from person to person. Usually these people are not as dangerous as the ones who relate to the groups listed above because the terror is not their lifestyle. They use it because they cannot find another way to change the conditions of their difficult and hopeless situations in lives (quot. Brittanica The Book of The Year p.
205). —————————————————-3————————————————————People do not pay enough attention to the terror acts in Palestine, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, or Checnya. Attention can be attracted only by the most tragically ones. Like blowing up the barracks of the U. S. base in Saudi Arabia.
Middle East is well known for its anti Western tendention. The growing anti-Western feeling is palpable. (Maclean’s July8, 1996). The terrorist acts against Americans are becoming more and more common. What is really done in the world about that problem? What do our governments can do? What ways do they already have? What should be done to make the struggle with the terrorism more effective?Political leaders are worrying about the issue. After the events in Saudi Arabia the topic of terrorism was the main point on the meeting of G-7.
The new 40-point plan to fight and prevent the terrorism was accepted (Macleans Morris N. p. 23). Modern terrorism, as it was mentioned before, became an international problem. Therefore, it is impossible to fight it within the borders of one definite country. There are many agreements among the main countries of the world.
These agreements allow to punish the terrorists even if they have escaped to other country. The main problems, connected with terrorism, are discussed on the highest level at United Nations Assemblies. Almost every country has its own group of very highly trained soldiers, which are specially trained for work with terrorists. The maintaining and developing such group takes years, and costs lots of money. But it is worth it. There are very many examples of successful operations, which were accomplished without single hostage victim.
The terrorists were whether killed or neutralised very quickly. The most famous of such groups are German GSG-9, British SAS, Austrian Cobra, Russian Alfa, American Delta, and many others. The names and the faces of the members of these groups are kept in secret. So, it seems that the situation is not very helpless. There are agreements, there are special forces. Nevertheless, the problem stays very complicated.
CONCLUSIONSo we have talked about the definition of terrorism and some background, major types of terrorism and govt’s actions against terrorists. And I would like to finish my speech with a quotation of David Sambursky who is a veteran of American Special Anti-terrorist Group Delta. He has once said The struggle with terrorism is the war, which we cannot win, but neither are we allowed to lose.
