Terrorism Threats Analysis - Essay Example

 Terrorism comprises all the activities that are done by illegal groups that have widely established networks for perpetuating death and destruction of human life and property (Donohoe, 2008). In the current times, the world has been dealing with the problem of international terrorism which has been responsible for the massive destruction and deaths of millions of people across the world. Through various research that has been conducted on this subject, terrorism has been cited as not just being a mere accident, but rather, a series of decisions that are carefully thought out, planned, and executed.

This follows the fact that terrorist activities are often targeted at specific places and sites, and not general areas. This development has led to curiosity and the need for research on what exactly champions the terrorists’ thinking and planning of their activities. Factors that terrorist groups consider when selecting targets concerning the choice targets, it is evident that terrorists do not make random choices like those witnessed with freedom fighters or liberation movements. Rislien & Rislien (2010) have observed that “…one may add the indispensability of ideology, not only because it provides the initial dynamic for the terrorists’ actions, but because it sets out the moral framework within which they operate.” (P. 134).

There seems to have been some drastic changes in the terrorists’ targeting policies; traditionally, those terrorists that had political ambitions would target major installation to attract media attention and general loss of life. For this reason, commercial centers were least spared. Currently, various considerations are put into perspective by terrorists; (Dugdale (2005), points out that, “First, they do a risk analysis” (p. 1). Terrorists make careful considerations of the potential benefits they stand to get from the target; this is often in contrast to the number of resources and potential for success.

In the same way, Rislien & Rislien (2010), explain that “Academia thus claims that terrorism is rational and has a clear singleness of purpose” (p. 134), something that underpins the need for an understanding of their target choices and decision. It is this analysis that leads to the earmarking of places as “soft” and “hard” targets by particular terrorist groups. In this analysis, a “hard” target is that which has considerable security and may make the terrorists easily intercepted in the course of their actions.

On the other hand, a “soft” target is that which has few security considerations with many public interactions by different people; for instance, entertainment stadia. The FARC GroupThe FARC group consists of an outlawed group that has been terrorizing and destabilizing the government of Columbia for quite a long time. The group has been accused of trafficking drugs and killing innocent people in the country, something that has prompted different interventions from the government’s forces (Brittain, 2010).

The group has often employed guerrilla tactics in launching attacks on the civilian population and the army at large. The tactics and approaches they employ in perpetrating harm to civilians and armed government groups have sparked a cause of concern about the factors influencing their choice of targets and general activities. Overall, terrorists’ ideology has been described as an essential process, not because it provided dynamism for their actions, but also for the moral framework in which they function (Lee, 2011).

How do these factors differ for the terrorist group selected earlier activities of the revolutionary armed forces of Columbia have followed diverse approaches that are still a subject of research by many people that have had an interest in this subject. In their actions, they have most of the time targeted places that have both civilian and military presence (Rislien & Rislien, 2010). This has made the Colombian army establish a fence of defense and increase their surveillance to keep their residents and properties safe from these activities.

FARC groups have always targeted killing even the innocent of all the Columbians, just to try to inflict harm to the government. This has made it hard to create conclusive research into the character and behavior traits of these terrorists to deal with them in totality by the Israeli army.