Terrorism A New Image

Written by Fabian Egbesu Ohore Monday, 16 August 2010 22:11

Terrorism A New Image You are on a plane, Christmas day getting ready to meet family and friends. You are excited about the gifts and food which will be in plenty abundance. You glance over at the couple with their daughter and you can’t wait till you are in the loving embrace of your children and significant other. As your plane lands you hear a scream, commotion and flashes of light. Some passengers are rushing to the front as your heart starts to race, terror is all over the place and you see a struggle between some men and then out of know where a loud explosion. While the paragraph above this one is fiction, it is based on a true life event. On Christmas day 2009 a young wealthy Nigerian unsuccessfully tried to blow up a plane filled many people. The act of terrorism has many faces, contrary to what our media normally shows Terror comes in all shapes, colors and ideologies. From the angry Arab extremist to the Irish IRA bombers hell bent on separating Ireland from British control. We also have the recently defeated Tamil Tigers who were determined to create their own state separate from Sri Lanka. The task of categorizing and putting a face on terrorism is a cumbersome and difficult task. Some left leaning groups may even take it a step further and state the founding fathers of the United States were terrorists themselves, the fact that they used terror and violence to create a separate nation or entity known as the United States definitely falls into the realm of terrorism. The many faces of terrorism are ever evolving and as the world becomes more flat our national security agencies will have a much tougher time putting terrorists and terrorism in a box. Here is a question that one must ask before solving the conundrum called terrorism. What is terrorism? And who are the terrorists? For this paper we will define terrorism as the act of using physical violence as a tactic or strategy to create fear, uncertainty, further a cause and destruction. Since we have answered the question on what is terrorism let us ask our selves who exactly is a terrorist? There is no clear cut direct description of a terrorist. As the Nigerian Christmas day bomber shows us a terrorist comes in all forms, shapes and sizes. If one were to ask Osama Bin Laden he would say western foreign policy is terrorism. The best definition of terrorism is one mans freedom fighter is another mans terrorist. The best way for Authorities to combat terrorism would be to understand its goal, which is not a direct military victory but causing maximum desperation and chaos. For one to defeat terrorism one must stay rational at all times. Terrorism is a global reality and we must ask ourselves what are the causes of terrorism. Terrorism has four main causes Economic Reasons Social Reasons Political reasons Colonialism The economic reasons for terrorism are all around us. We live in a largely unfair economy where wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few and poverty so equally distributed equally amongst many in other countries, poverty is a major motivation for many terrorists with the exception of those in leadership positions. Although you may get the usual outlier such as Osama Bin laden or the Nigerian Christmas day bomber who come from wealthy backgrounds, the average terrorist is poor. Poverty and poor economic options plays a great role in the choice to partake in terror. Many terrorists have limited sources of employment and because terrorism pays a great deal (some martyrs in the Islamic world see to it that their families are paid a handsome fee before they kill themselves sort of like a crude version of life insurance). Many youths don’t see any way for them to escape the poverty of their lands and see that it would be better to die for their families to get money than for them to live and not be able to provide for their families. The response of our government must be one in which they start to create programs whereby the poverty stricken don’t see terror as an option to get their families out of poverty.( Dershowitz, 2002, p.30 ) The lack of social amenities and services can be a major motive for many impoverished individuals to see terrorism as a response towards who they feel is responsible for their condition. Many feel that the lack of jobs are the result of the west and out of this despair many respond with terrorism. Yasser Arafat and the early Zionist terrorists are early examples of terrorists using violent and extremist rhetoric to further a political cause. After years of agitation for state recognition it was not until the Palestinian terrorists started their campaign of terror in 1968 that they started to receive state recognition. Terrorism can be seen as an avenue by some to express political agitation. Colonialization has played a very decent role in terrorism according to BBC in an interview with Britain’s foreign secretary Jack Straw The UK Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, has blamed Britain's imperial past for many of the modern political problems, including the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Kashmir dispute. ‘A lot of the problems we are having to deal with now - I have to deal with now - are a consequence of our colonial past…the Balfour declaration... again, an interesting history for us, but not an honorable one,’ he said. In an interview with a British magazine, the New Statesman, Mr. Straw spoke of quite serious mistakes made, especially during the last decades of the empire. He said the Balfour Declaration of 1917 - in which Britain pledged support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine - and the contradictory assurances given to Palestinians were not entirely honorable. ‘The Balfour declaration and the contradictory assurances which were being given to Palestinians in private at the same time as they were being given to the Israelis - again, an interesting history for us, but not an honorable one,’ he said. The odd lines for Iraq's borders were drawn by Brits (British), Mr. Straw acknowledged ‘some quite serious mistakes’ in India and Pakistan, jewels of the British empire before their 1947 independence, as well as Britain's "less than glorious role" in Afghanistan. Mr. Straw blamed many territorial disputes on the illogical borders created by colonial powers. He mentioned Iraq, the region which was governed by Britain under the mandate of the League of Nations after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I. And he said the British Government had been complacent about Kashmir at the time of Indian independence, when it quickly became the most contentious issue between India and Pakistan. BBC, (2002, Nov 15) The fact that Europe carved out the world according to their understanding without taking into consideration the ethnic and cultural differences that existed in the many countries they colonized. This blatant disregard has come back to haunt the western world. Societies that for years had friction where grouped together into a country and expected to function as a stable nation. Osama Bin Laden for example stated that the reason he is fighting the United States because of the break up of the Ottoman Empire which the British dismantled. The past mistakes of colonialism are a direct cause of the global terrorism we see today. The conundrum called terrorism leaves the recipient of that terror with only 2 responses Aggressive response Passive Aggressive response The aggressive response is one that America has largely taken. The United States has grossly over-reacted as some might put it. The problem with such a heavy handed approach to terrorism is that it plays into the hand of the terrorists. Gross overreaction and paranoia are destructive mental games in which a terrorist uses to gain the illusion that they are every where. Since 2001 our government has spent billions on improving security and fighting a war. Terrorists are not deterred by fancy new technologies they are like every human, they learn to adapt. The Nigerian Christmas day bomber sewed chemical liquids (which when put together would explode) into his under- wear. We don’t have chemical detectors at airports, only dogs can sniff out what can sometimes be odorless chemicals and in some countries they don’t have access to such dogs. We have spent billions on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this has still played into the hands of the hands of the terrorists due to the fact that it wins them sympathy from the local population. They are now seen by the local population as fighting a second coming of the colonialists. This in turn gets them more soldiers and funding and draws them closer to the masses that would otherwise be very against their extremist ways. Not only is the heavy handed approach not working its skyrocketing costs is paid for by taxpayers who not only see their wallets shrink in order to fight terror but also their freedoms, with the many searches and checks at airports, trains and other places. According to Robert Greene historian and author of the “33 Strategies of War” the best way to deal with terrorism is to stay balanced. He says The goal of a terror campaign is not battle field victory but to create maximum chaos and provoking the other side into desperate overreaction….the victims of terror must not succumb to fear or even anger….. the most effective counter strategy is to stay balanced…..in a world dominated by appearances terrorism can offer a spectacular shortcut to publicity and terrorists tailor their violence toward the media….terrorism also has its limits……accentuating the terrorists isolation and denying them a political base should be an effective counter strategy against them…. The important thing is to channel public emotions away from fear and into something positive…..time must be taken to patiently uproot the terrorist threat. More valuable than military force here is solid intelligence, infiltration of the enemy ranks (working to find dissidents from within) and slowly drying up the money and resources on which the terrorist depends( 2007, p. 485-488) The efforts of great leaders such as Charles de Gaulle of France have shown us a blueprint to defeat terrorism. A cool, calm and calculated effort such as the multi nation joint force during desert storm where Europe, Asia, America and the world openly shared information, intelligence and fought together to thwart the terrorist activities of Saddam Hussein, proves to us that the heavy handed approach is archaic and irrelevant in today’s global war on terror. An Arab proverb says victory is not one by the number killed but by the number scared. Let us not be scared into defeat. Bibliography Greene, R. (. (2006). The 33 Strategies of War (HARDCOVER). New York: Penguin Books. Dershowitz, A. M. (2003). Why Terrorism Works: Understanding the Threat, Responding to the Challenge (New Ed ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. Johnson, J. T. (2001). Morality and Contemporary Warfare (New Ed ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. Burleigh, M. (2008). Sacred Causes: The Clash of Religion and Politics, from the Great War to the War on Terror. New York: Harper Perennial. (Original work published null) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2481371.stm