Terrorism is becoming more and more of a threat to Americans both at home and abroad. International terrorism happens when terrorism occurs out of our country.
An example of anInternational terrorist is Osama bin Laden. Laden is the worlds most dangerous terrorist. Laden shows genocidal tendency by killingAmericans through-out the world from the bombings of the World Trade Center to the embassybombings in Africa. The African blasts killed more than 250 people.
The FBI has been trackinghim for more that four years and they still couldn’t stop him from striking Americans overseasand can’t stop him now with the current foreign policy that has been adopted. He feels that all Christians and Jews worldwide need to be exterminated because of theevil that they represent. He thinks that the Jihad is necessary to combat the Christians and Jewswho are considered the heretics of the world; therefore, it is justified to use terrorism toexterminate them because of their degraded moral standards and also to raise the Muslim worldover the Christian world. To accomplish his goals of killing all Christians and Jews, he foundedthe International Front for Jihad against the Jews and the Crusaders.
This organization , publisheda “fatwa” (religious ruling) proclaiming the “Jihad against the heretics who conquer Muslimlands,” which bin Laden considers a duty of all Muslims (Schweiter 1). Bin Laden was trained andequipped by the CIA during the Afghan War of 1979-89, so he is very capable of carrying out hisgoals. He also has the money to continue funding these operations that have proven to be deadlyThe special station that was created over two years ago by the government’s counterterrorist centers has not been successful in disrupting bin Laden’s operations. Even though the FBIand the CIA have increase funding. Especially in the FBI’s funds from $118 million to $286million today and has its number of employees devoted to this area doubled over the same periodof time, the Washington Post says that the CIA , despite this increase in funding resulting in moreattention being paid to bin Laden that it “was not able to foresee the bombings of two USembassies,” four months ago “in East Africa, allegedly by bin Laden operatives ” (Loeb 2,1). The cruise-missile strikes that were launched against bin Laden will prove ineffective instopping his terrorist operation.
Though the American counter strikes may have admonished binLaden, his vast financial resources and network will remain intact (Loeb 4). The thing that binLaden still has is his vast wealth regardless of what damage was inflicted on his operation by thecruise-missile strikes. Bin Ladens resources are hidden in several countries in what many callfront companies, and this is going to make it difficult to track down bin Laden’s assets somegovernment officials worry (“Costly” 6)(kelley 2). Cannistraro said, “while we’ve aggressivelytargeted his financial flows of money, which is the lifeblood of the organization a lot of it is stillout of reach. We’re not going to be able to put him out of business” (Kelley 2).
After such strikes against bin Laden, it is important to understand what consequences haveoccurred and could occur because of the American strikes. The first factor of a terrorist attack isthe terrorist’s motivation to carry out their attacks, and the second being their capability to carryout their attacks. The director of The International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism, BoazGanor, asserts that often such retaliation against a terrorist group will “by its very nature,”increase the terrorist’s motivation “to take revenge for the damage to their capabilities and to their’image. ‘” However, “such strikes won’t increase their ability to carry out more attacks; and at best,will greatly damage their capabilities to do so. ” But bin Laden’s organization and bin Ladenhimself, along with his followers from around the world seem to still be able to mass extensiveterrorist attacks.
Ganor insists, “now their motivation to carry out such attacks will be greaterthan ever, as they will feel they must avenge themselves and restore their image,” so if theAmerican strikes accomplished anything it put even more people at harm’s way (Ganor 1). Animmediate consequence from the strikes was the release of two bombing suspects by Pakistaniofficials who were prepared to turn the suspects over to the United States before the strikes tookplace. Newsweek asserts that the attacks on bin Laden may “have cost investigators a majorbreakthrough in tying the African attacks to bin Laden. ” The reason that Pakistan decided torelease the suspects instead of turning them over to the United States was because severalPakistani intelligence officers were among those killed in the cruise-missile attack (“Costly” 6).
That just shows how one person can have a impact on a society or country. There areother kinds of terrorist acts. Urban Terrorism its when terrorism occurs in a city. Another kindof terrorism is Local terrorism and thats when terrorism strikes near were one lives. For instance, the Oklahoma City bombing would be an example of Urban Terrorism.
There are many different causes for these acts of terrorism. One of these causes is when agroup of people disagree with each other. They make it clear that they do not like each other bytaking it to drastic measures. For example, sending a mail bomb , or by making a car bomb.
Another reason for terrorism is when there is a political group or a anti group. Theyterrorize because they do not think the government knows that they are there or because they donot think the government is talking them seriously. This is one of the main reasons that terrorismAnother cause of terrorism happens with governments. If one country attacks anothercountry they both go for the main leaders. This can lead to snipers, car bombs, and air strikes. There are many people or groups you can blame these acts on.
The government shouldtake responsibility for this. The reason for this is because they should protect everyone in ourcountry to the same degree. They can also prevent terrorism in many ways. The government can keep terrorism out of their country by doing many things.
First of allthey should know who the threat is (groups, other governments , anti groups). If they know thethreat they can keep them under surveillance to see if they are doing anything suspicious. Theycan also prevent it by reasoning with the terrorist group. Also , it can be prevented if they giveevery terrorist group the same attention as all the major ones. If they do that none of the acts ofThere are two other ways they can prevent terrorism. One way is to not do anything thatmight cause another person or group to terrorize another.
The last way is to make all informationabout making bombs and other terrorism things harder to find. For example, I am in ninth gradeand I can get information on making napalm. (Below)How to make Napalm by the Jolly Roger- Pour some gas into an old bowl, or some kind of container. – Get some Styrofoam and put it in the gas, until the gas won’t eat anymore. You should have a- Put it on the end of something (don’t touch it!!). The unused stuff lasts a long time! You may not know that napalm is very powerful and destructive.
Now if that doesnt scare orAmericans everywhere are being butchered. Every time an American is slaughtered by aterrorist, another piece of America dies with them. This must not be allowed to continue tohappen; therefore, we must stop further attacks on Americans. To do this, Daniel Johnson insiststhat we must not merely strike back at these terrorist organizations that dare slaughter Americans,but we must destroy them (Johnson 21).Bibliography:
