Terrorism and Political Violence - Essay Example

? Terrorism and political violence Terrorism and political Violence Introduction Most people in governmenthave been using terrorism to contest their political powers but it is only a few who understands how these cartels operates. The meaning of the word terror is clear when applied to the real act and those who perform it however, the applying to the real world is confusing. Through terrorism, the weaker side always carries the day by using tactics. Given that terrorist have a very small and secretive organization; it leaves the opponents with no choice to defend against them. The challenge therefore is about getting a clear distinction between terrorism and crime. Acts of terrorism has risen tremendously in the world and they are normally carried out by those with extreme goals. United States Department of Defense sees terrorism as an act of unlawful violence intended to create fear and used to intimidate governments or societies either for political, religious or ideological reasons. Terrorism is so much linked to political violence Historical Aspect of Terrorism Acts of terrorism has been in existence for millennia and so it is not something that just began the other day. The question one asks is, can an Unabomber doing a campaign for terrorism be termed as criminal, terrorist or a revolutionist? The French revolutionary state got into the same state of confusion when it instituted systematic state terror around 1970s leading to death of many people. Concept of moral equivalency broadens definition of what constitutes terrorism and that which is not. Critics argue that what matters is the outcome of the act and not the intent. If a military force with uniform cause damage to a population is categorized as the same as directing a bomb to the civilians deliberately. Anyone is termed as a terrorist as long as that person has caused harm to innocent civilians only that military action is a form of terrorism with a different name (Fridell,2001). Terrorism flexible and adaptable and therefore these characteristics have led to confusion all over the world. Tactics of committing acts of terrorism have been changing significantly over the recent past and more importantly increase in the number of causes and social context for terrorism. Nowadays most terrorist continue to perform their acts in the name of revolution and fulfillment of religious duties. The change of tactics makes it difficult for government and the security agencies and to fight this vice in the society. The elected leaders who are charged with the responsibility of fighting for people’s rights are the main culprits and most of them do these things to maintain their political positions. Terrorism traces its roots to so many years back and it has been going through series of revolution. The very first kind of terrorism of 1st and 14th century AD that exhibits the same acts as one’s being experienced today was Zealots of Judea, who Romans refer to as dagger-men campaigned for assassination of the Roman forces and those Jews who collaborated with them. Their aim was to express their belief that they were not ready anymore to remain subjects to Roman rule while being dictated by Judaism. Another group was the Assassins a group that broke from Shia Islam adopting a tactic of assassinating enemy leaders because the cult prevented open combat owing to limited manpower (Han,2010). This secretive killing of enemy leaders sends a fearful awe in their enemies and so they are forerunners of the current terrorism in terms of motivation, organization, and goals and indeed they made a psychological impact. Between 14th and 18th century, terror was applied extensively in warfare as well as in resolving conflicts. There was an uninterrupted communication and this led to open warfare. Kingdoms and principalities broke up to form nations and by then these nations had enough strength authority to curb the terrorism menace. The use of the word “Terrorism” was first initiated by French revolution following a terror initiated by Revolutionary Government. Ironically the agents of committee that of public safety that constituted, formulated and enforced policies of the terror were referred to as “Terrorists” and yet they were fighting against terrorism that was being purported by the government in the name of revolution. French state set a very bad example of citizens oppressing its populations. It also triggered the royalists and other people who were opposed to the revolution idea who also employed terrorism tactics like intimidation and assassination of the revolutionist resistance. Therefore, all these kinds of gruesome extra judicial killings that has led to loss of prominent officials and aristocrats began long before guillotine. 19th century saw improvement in weapons technology and as a result many revolutionists are rising up to attack the nations. The aim is now to major on national identities where most terrorists fight for either assimilation or struggle in case their demands are not met. Take the Irish nationalism for example, over the ages there has been struggle for either nationalism or communism but in 20th century, communism became the greatest ideological force than nationalism. Terrorists of this period have unique features different from those of the modern terrorists because they sometimes call off attacks which they see as threatening the lives of unintended targets. These groups are also unique in terms of cellular organization, clandestine, impatience and they also tend to intensify their attacks as pressures continue to mount (Han,2010). 20th and 21st centuries are two time periods which have seen terrorism totally change from a localized act to a widespread pandemic. In the early 20th century which was mainly a colonial period aroused passions and hopes of the nationalists thereby disrupting the international order and governments. The colonial masters continued to impose their nationalist ide3as to their subjects leading to rise of nationalism throughout the world. Different ethnic groups merged began to embrace national ambitions. While resisting their colonial masters they used terrorism tactics to struggle for independence. The cold war between the East and the West has also aggravated the matter even more because every nation wants to rise to the super power and to achieve that it has to struggle and so most countries use terrorism acts to advance their acts. The worldly known and the latest form of terrorism happened in September 11, 2001 when the Islamic terrorists hijacked the civilian airliners attacking the Pentagon house in Washington DC. Other major tourists attacks occurred in New Delhi at the parliament buildings, London subway bombings, Madrid bombings and most recently bombing in an hotel in Mumbai. Pakistan and Afghanistan currently serves as the operational and strategic centre for the Islamic terrorists. Generally there are different magnitudes of terrorism but the major acts of terrorism begin in the Arabian counties targeting the West (Fridell,2001). Cultural aspect of Terrorism Within the context of terrorism, culture is something that people have and are immersed in. Those who have culture, culture seem to have them. Sometimes reports come of detainees committing suicide in the hands of American forces. One thing to note is that such inmates do not just commit suicide because of American policies rather it is because they were brought up in a culture of death where one does not care about human life including his own life. As issues of terrorism are being forgotten slowly in America because they no longer appear in the news headlines as in the past, the Arabian regimes are terming the protestors, activists and those who oppose oppression as terrorism. Saudi Arabia argues that it fights terrorism but people who are categorized as terrorists are those who demand democratic reforms. The governments are sabotaged by terrorist and so they liaise with them and therefore leading to the perennial problems of frequent bombings without bringing any suspect to book. Islam for instance, believes that Allah is the only God and all other gods are unimportant. If people are fed with such gospel and taught that terrorism is a holy war against those who do not worship Allah in the Islamic way must be terrorist and inflicted with fear to obey the laws of Allah. It so surprising to see people sacrificing, their lives just to commit suicide bomb in the name of religion. Those people are put through spiritual training and fed with certain cultural beliefs that make them to do such acts without even thinking. Some of them are lied that that by being a terrorist and fighting those people who are not worshiping Allah, they increasing their chances of being accepted in heaven. Contrary to this however, God is all good and he loves human live and so there is no way he would accept such behavior. Holy war is just a conspiracy created by terrorist to cover him or herself and continue to perpetuate their cruel acts. There is no religion in the world the teaches people to hate other human and even go to the extent of causing unnecessary harm (Han,2010). The fight against terrorism can only be won if cultural issues, which greatly affect behavior, are first done with. Dealing with human heart is the first thing that needs to be dealt with first before trying to control terrorists using military force. It is important first to speak with groups who usually commit such acts of terrorism and try to change their attitudes and try to understand what aggravates and motivates their behavior. Sometimes people commit violence out of bitterness and it is good for governments and security agencies to dig deeper to understand what leads to such bitterness and be able to deal with them amicably instead of punishing them through imprisonment which may not help at all. Terrorism groups like Al-Qaida and Alshabab should not just be banned as illegal but the governments should consider talking to their members. Such cartels uses very high form of technology making their location very hard. Osama Bin Laden who was the leader of Al-Qaida was terrorist America and other parts of the world for so many years before being killed. Dialogue could be the only solution but everyone must acknowledge that fighting terrorism ia a responsibility of everyone and not a single government. Political violences Currently, most of the terrorism acts are associated with political forces and influence in different regions of the world. The acts of violence are intended to create fear in people so that they fail to participate fully in activities that relates to their political democracy. The political groups purposefully plan violent activities in the community in order to create disorder and chaos in the community. This fear created in the minds of the people makes them dormant and less aggressive with the political activities of the community pertaining to political grounds. People are therefore prohibited from fully participating in the issues of concern in relation to the political arena (Stewart, 2002). The political groups which create this kind of violence take advantage of the disorder and chaos to perpetrate their political agenda in an environment where people are occupied by fear of violence and terrorism. They continue to use this as a way of weakening their political opponents by planning bomb attacks in their strongholds in order to reduce their political power an influence in the community. These attacks of violence caused by political forces has been observed in many countries of which they led to the destruction of the resources of the country leading to mild economic problems as well as poor political stability (Fridell,2001). The unfavorable political situation makes the people unsatisfied mostly when their grievances are not addressed by the political leaders. The individuals may end up forming groups to go against the current government which is not considering their grievances. The groups formed plan many violent terrorist activities which may worsen the situation in the country leading to more chaos and disorder. These groups may lead to loss of lives and property in their effort to go against the government. The political leaders in power will then divert the public resources to curbing the terrorist attacks making the economy of the country to go down. This conflict continues to exist so as the citizens are not satisfied with the leadership of a country. This may lead to formation of larger terrorist groups which forms a wide network to facilitate their activities and this may make great damage to the country in general. The efforts of these terrorist groups may plan dangerous bomb attacks that may end up injuring the innocent people leading to death or disabilities. Many terrorist attacks related to political violence caused a lot of damage to the innocent people ruining their lives (Crotty, 2005). Terrorist groups at times are after power in a given country and they try to achieve their target and goals by weakening the forces of the government and destructing the order in the society. The terrorists claim that they tried as much as possible to tolerate the political injustices up to the extent that was no longer bearable and then decides to go against such political injustices. Most of the terrorists recruit others with promises of huge chunks of money and other valuable promises. The recruits are usually close friends and family members whose believe and trust is high in order to keep their secrets from the government. Terrorists are commonly funded by rich individuals as well as by the force driving the group. They may be funded by the politicians who are in the opposition of the government. The influential and wealthy institutions may also fund political terrorism if they are not happy in the way the government is conducting its daily business. The donors who fund these terrorist activities are those individuals and groups that against the leadership of that country. This may result from political dominance and discrimination of the minority groups. These minority groups may gang up to work against the government; they contribute funds to facilitate these terrorist attacks (Han,2010). The terrorists always attack common public sites in order to attract tension and fear to the public and this facilitates their success in their mission because their aim is not to harm the enemy but just to instill fear in them and their voice be heard so that the government may give attention to their grievances. They commonly plan attacks on the people who are collaborating with the enemy so that they are intimidated and break their ties from the target groups, for instance, attacks were conducted in Kenya and Tanzania on the basis of collaborating with the USA in the independence war. The attack of significant buildings was meant to create tension in the whole country and outside the country. Terrorists groups are funded by the individual states in order to attack their neighbors in a bid to access some kind of resources against their neighboring community. The states like Pakistan are known to have funded the terrorist attacks against their neighboring state, India, in a bid to aces the resources alone at their border. Other sources of funding are activities like kidnapping, robbery, smuggling goods, and drugs trafficking. The terrorists therefore have many sources of financing their activities. The revolutionary tax is another source of money to facilitate this activity of terrorism (Crotty, 2005). Terrorisms have also been propagated through religious grounds. People from various religions like Islam have facilitated the terrorism activities in the aim of gaining popularity from the public and spreading the view of belief. Though the religion is well identified, the individual can be analyzed to represent their religion. The terrorist attacks related to religions are caused by the discrimination against such religions therefore the believers feels the urge to inflict pain to those discriminating them. They therefore raise alarm that they exist and their rights and freedom of worship should be addressed and be given the necessary attention or consideration. They call for the public attention with respect to their religion and beliefs. Terrorism is a very common thing in countries with less freedom of democracy but it is less associated with countries that have the freedom of democracy. This is because the less democratic countries are less stable and prone to violence which may further lead to terrorism if not curbed at early stage because the needs of the people are not addressed as early as possible. If the needs of the people are not given the necessary attention then they are likely to erupt thereafter in form of awkward ways of violence or terrorism which may have severe consequences to the country (Crotty, 2005). Terrorism has wild effects on the lives of many people in that it leads to many inhumane acts that to death of many people as well as disabilities in the people. This may as a result leave families without their breadwinners leading to unnecessary suffering from intentional terrorism acts which are avoidable in real sense. Many people have therefore lost their relatives and properties through these violent acts of terrorism. The victims are subjected to psychological trauma and depression due to these heinous acts of terrorism. Political differences between the western countries and the eastern countries lead to development of terrorism groups like Al-Qaida which facilitated several terror attacks at many parts of the globe in countries which are affiliated to the USA.The attacks affected countries like Kenya and Tanzania in Eastern Africa. These led to destruction of property as well as loss of lives. Many people were also disabled during the bomb blasts in September2001.These violent attacks maimed many people and created terror and fear in the minds of people and they live to remember such historical moments of their lives. This therefore shows a true picture of terrorism and how it has spread to many parts of the world (Stewart, 2002). The world has tried many ways to curb the political terrorism by fighting against the terrorist as well as weakening the states which funds the terrorists. A country like the US has invested heavily on the fights against terrorism all over the world. They managed to kill the Al-Qaida leader called Osama Bin Laden after several intelligence meetings and strong shootout between the terrorists and the US soldiers. In conclusion, terrorism and violence has been and is still a current issue of concern especially in the Eastern part of the world. The acts of terrorism have cost humanity a great deal of pain and loss of both lives and property. Terrorism therefore needs to be addressed globally in order to curb it. Work Cited Fridell, R. (2001). Terrorism: Political violence at home and abroad. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers. Han, H. H. (2010). Terrorism & political violence: Limits & possibilities of legal control. New York: Oceana Publications. Stewart, G. B. (2002). Terrorism. 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