Why Disaster Preparedness is Important under the Light of Human Made Disasters like Mumbai Attack - Coursework Example

War and Terrorism Objective: The main rationale behind this paper is to develop an educational program for disaster preparedness especially human made disasters on the basis of recent Mumbai terrorist attack Thesis:-Why disaster preparedness is important in the current world under the lime light of human made disasters like Mumbai Attack? Abstract Terrorism is a global phenomenon and most of the countries are suffering from it irrespective of developed, developing or underdeveloped. Most of the reasons for terrorism can be attributed to religious fundamentalism, poverty and economic factors. The recent Mumbai terrorist attack is the latest among the terror activities. This paper analyzes the details about Mumbai attack, its causes, the suspects, outcomes and the possible remedial measures a country has to focus to stay away from terrorism. This educational program is intended for the graduate students. Introduction Definition of terrorism “Terrorism has been described variously as both a tactic and strategy; a crime and a holy duty; a justified reaction to oppression and an inexcusable abomination. The United States Department of Defence defines terrorism as “the calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological.” Within this definition, there are three key elements—violence, fear, and intimidation—and each element produce terror in its victims” (What is Terrorism?) Terrorism has its origin traced back to the beginning of human civilization. Holy Bible says; Adam’s elder son killed his younger brother simply because of jealousy. This can be considered as the beginning of terrorism. Human made terrorism Disasters can be of two types; natural disasters and human made disasters. Among human made disasters, terrorism is the most prominent one. Most of the human made terrorism is because of religious fundamentalism rather than anything else. In most of the human made terrorist activities we can see a particular community at one side and different other communities at other side. Religious beliefs have lot to do with the human made terrorist activities. In the attack like the world trade centre attack and the recent Mumbai attack we have seen the role of religious fundamentalists. Though it is difficult to prevent a human made disaster like a terrorist attack, disaster preparedness can reduce the casualties up to certain extent. The knowledge about the way in which the attacks have been planned and the target locations can help ordinary people in taking some precautions while visiting the volatile regions. Mumbai terrorist attack Mumbai terrorist attack was the latest major terrorist activity happened in the world. This attack has lot of significance because of the way in which it was planned and executed. Unlike other attacks, this attack has lasted for more than two days. Instead of attacking one or two locations, in a city as seen in the previous attacks, this time the terrorists were succeeded in attacking the entire Mumbai city using military tactics and also they were able to extend the attack to the third day. Because of this uniqueness of the attack, I have chosen this human made disaster for my educational program for disaster preparedness. It is believed that the attackers traveled by sea from Karachi, Pakistan, and entered Mumbai via speedboats. The terrorists at first has gun down the leaders of the special task forces and then attacked Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Taj Mahal Hotel, Oberoi Trident hotel and Chabad Center where the Jewish community was heavily populated. Mumbai terrorist attack started at around 8 pm on November 26, 2008 and lasted for almost 3 days and around 179 people were killed including 22 foreigners and over 300 people got injured. “A Pakistan-based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, or LET, is the top suspect in the three-day terrorist rampage” (Kingsbury) Types of Terrorism Based on the nature of terrorism, it can be classified into many categories such as Bioterrorism, cyber terrorism, Narco terrorism, Nuclear terrorism, State terrorism, etc. Bio terrorism means the attack of civilians using toxic biological agents which may causes diseases. Toxic biological agents can spread diseases like Anthrax (Bacillus anthracis), Botulism (Clostridium botulinum toxin), The Plague (Yersinia pestis), Smallpox (Variola major), Tularemia (Francisella tularensis), Hemorrahagic fever, due to Ebola Virus or Marburg Virus. (Zalman, 2009) Cyber terrorism normally may not result in much civilian casualties. Cyber terrorist will normally attack the computer systems and the networks to cause inconvenience to the people in many ways. Because of such terrorism people may experience lot of problems such as due to faulty services from banking or financial sector, transportation sector or power sector. Narco terrorism deals with the accumulation of funds for terrorist activities using drug trafficking. Drug traffickers use innocent people mostly who unknowingly carry these drugs from one place to other. Another version of narco terrorism is making of the people drug addicts of the enemy country or society, Nuclear terrorism is not common, but it can be as dangerous as any other terrorist activities. Nuclear materials and technologies are robbed and then utilize them in making nuclear weapons, in such terrorism. There were some reports in which one Pakistani scientist has been found culprit of selling the nuclear technology to Libya, North Korea like countries. It has been argued that some states are engaged in terrorist activities. Pakistan was always watched with suspicion in almost all the terrorist activities in India. The recent Mumbai attack also was planned by Pakistan as per the Indian authorities. India has given enough evidence to the international community about the role of Pak government in sponsoring terrorism in India. History/Past terrorist attacks Terrorism has its origin traced back to the beginning of human civilization. Holy Bible says; Adam’s elder son killed his younger brother simply because of jealousy. This can be considered as the beginning of terrorism. Ancient terrorist activities were limited to killing of one or two people. This type of killing was mostly because of some quarrel or in order to rob something. But as the world advances in every aspects of life, terrorism also advanced along with science and technology. Modern methods and technologies were used to execute terrorist activities. The most famous terrorist activity reported in recent times is the September 11, 2001 World centre, New York City, attack by the Al Qaeda terrorist group. In fact the campaign “War on terrorism” has been launched by US after this attack. Oklahoma City Bombing, Bali Bombing, London Bombing 7/7, IRA campaign, Iranian Embassy Seige attacks, Munich Olympics attacks, Madrid Bombings, Indian parliament attack, Mumbai attacks etc are some other recent terrorist activities. Reasons for terrorism Most of the modern terrorist activities are due to religious fundamentalism and nationalism. The strong belief in religion and its teachings forces people to engage in violent activities. For Muslims, killing of a non believer who is suspected to be an enemy of their religion is considered as a sacred act. As per their belief such killers will get salvation. Nationalism can be attributed to any people residing in a country irrespective of the religion or community whereas communalism is a bi product of religion. Any kind of communalism can be considered as a result of fundamentalism. Nationalism represents a common cultural or regional group rather than a religion. Nationalism should be a spirit of the whole people in a country rather than a religion. But in some cases extreme nationalism can result in terrorism. The massacres against the Jews by Hitler and company can be considered as terrorism due to religious factors and also nationalism. The media doesn’t cover the part of religious nationalism affected and influenced in broader terms of globalization. The recent terrorist attack on Mumbai can be seen as the best example for this. Most of the media reported it as the terrorist attack by the Pak controlled terrorist groups in order to destabilize the Indian economy. Most of the reports focused much on the terrorists targeting foreigners like Jews, and Americans in the Mumbai attacks. The media failed to bring the religious nationalism factors involved in the attack. The attack has its causes related to Kashmir problem as well. The Muslims believe that the Kashmiri people are struggling under the tight control of Indian military forces there. So the Mumbai attack has planned to take revenge for that also. Many movements share a common logical party embedded with enlightenment thinking. But most of the violent movements do not appear naturally. The Mumbai attack is not naturally occurred, but it is politically created. The main reason behind the Mumbai attack can be attributed to many factors such as political, economical and religious as well. Pakistan is afraid of the growth of India as a world power. India, supposed to be have the fastest growing economy in the world apart from China. Recent reports showed that in 20 years time India would become a super power. India’s domination in world political arena is more than enough for the Pakistanis to digest. More over the destruction of Babri Masjid, by Hindu fundamentalists has contributed immensely to the conflicts between Hindus and Muslims not only in India, but also all over the world. Kashmir issue is another factor, which can be attributed to the current attack. Pakistan wanted to slow down India’s economic progress. India is definitely utilizing the possibilities of Globalization because of the large human resources and infrastructure facilities. On the other hand, Pakistan is often agitated with political instability and other internal problems between the Muslim radical groups. In order to change international community’s attention from Pakistan to some other places, the Pak secret agency has formulated and sponsored the Mumbai terrorist attack. “Police accused Pakistan's intelligence agency of planning those attacks, which they said were carried out by an Islamist militant group, Lashkar-e-Toiba” (Mumbai rocked by deadly attacks) Preventive Measures- Collective efforts by different countries Terrorism can be prevented only through collective efforts of the affected countries. The terrorist can take shelter in a country if that country encourages terrorism. It is the duty of every people to discourage terrorism and everybody should join the efforts of government in dealing with terrorism. People should the policy of live and let live. They should understand the importance of human life beyond the boundaries of religious beliefs. Disaster Preparedness Awareness programs The general public must be made aware of the possible terror attacks and also the way in which it should be dealt if occurred in their vicinity. The health care professionals must be trained well to handle emergency situations due to terrorist attacks. “The recent attacks in Mumbai serve as a tragic reminder of why we need to invest further in disaster preparedness work,” said Elizabeth Furst Frank, senior vice president of global programs at AmeriCares.  “It is so important to have health care systems prepared to work in a coordinated way so lives can be saved in the immediate aftermath of a disaster (AmeriCares Investing in Disaster Preparedness in India) Terrorist can infiltrate into any organizations in order to execute their mission. Even the military and police organizations are volatile to such infiltration. While recruiting personnel, the organization must take extreme care. The organizations must ensure the intentions and motto of the employees they have appointed. The origin and the address of the newly appointed employees must be carefully evaluated by the organizations before confirming the appointment. “Terrorist operators or staff working on their behalf will execute acts of espionage to collect data to support the customized design of the devastation. To minimize such deadly avenues, the corporate need to contemplate – design – train and apply adequate infiltration filtering, espionage controls, intrusion guarding, surveillance layers and early detective and notification systems via its staff and other integrations. In certain components, seeking the guidance of the state security apparatus is feasible, but not in all disciplines at all times.” (Kurunduhewa) “Mohammad Ajmal Amir Iman has told interrogators that right through the fighting, the Lashkar-e-Taiba headquarters in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir remained very much in touch with them, frequently calling their mobile phones via a voice-over-Internet service." This reminds us if needed to that yes, new social media, and other technology resources, are playing a strong and new role, which we need to understand. But also that how and what these tools are used for are issues mediated by socio-political and cultural setting, and understanding those in order to challenge them is another endeavor altogether” (Lobo) Emergency Response Personnel It has been reported that the National Security Guards (NSG) has reached Mumbai only 10 hours after the terrorist start killing the innocent. Though they finally succeeded in either killing or arresting the terrorists their operations were lasted for more than 3 days to attain the final victory. So emergency response personnel must be well trained and located at critical places to reach every corner of the country without time delay if any human made disaster occurs. “The connection between trauma systems and disaster response capability is obvious and it should be considered a fundamental component for achieving disaster preparedness. By definition, a system is a group of interacting or interrelated or interdependent elements forming a complex whole. For trauma systems that are successful, this translates into a group of dedicated health-care providers and medical facilities who interact regularly, are clearly related in their commitment to treating trauma, and are dependent on the contributions from each provider and facility to achieve the optimum patient outcome.” (Upchurch) Lessons learned from the Mumbai Attack and possible outcomes Lesson 1: Lack of competency of the law (Kingsbury):- The Indian laws were found inadequate in preventing or dealing with the terrorist attack. It took more than 10 hours for the national security guards (NSG) to reach the spot. The previous BJP government has implemented a law called POTA (Prevention Of Terrorist Act) after the Indian Parliament attack by the terrorists earlier. But the new government was reluctant in enforcing such an act because of the fear out of the possible misuse of the act. Lesson 2: Low-tech attacks can do tremendous damage (Kingsbury):- It was evident from the reports that the attackers were armed with machine guns and grenades alone. But still they were able to kill around 179 people. So if the terrorist attack happens in a heavily populated area, even under trained or the low-tech attackers can cause heavy casualties. Lesson 3: Terrorists can influence elections (Kingsbury):- Most of the terrorist attacks were planned just before the political elections in a country. The intentions of the terrorists are simple. They want to influence or get involved in the elections. They know very well that the public interest will be against a government which fails to ensure their safety. The current government in India was successful in developing and implementing so many policies for the growth of the country. The nuclear deal with US is the latest example. Pakistan doesn’t want to see India as a super power. They were aware of the fact that even in the current economic recession; the Indian economy has escaped with less damage. More over some reports shows that India will become a super power in 20 years time. So Pakistan wants to retard the Indian economy growth and for that purpose they want to destabilize the Indian government. Lesson 4: The cure may be more deadly than the disease (Kingsbury):- The American fight against the Muslim fundamentalist groups at the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan created lot of problems for the Pakistan government. The fundamentalists were against the Pak government since the Pak government forced to grant permission for the American military base in their country, to fight against the Muslim radical groups. Pakistan wants to withdraw their troops from the Afghan frontier which will be against the interests of the US. For that purpose they need a logical reason and through the Mumbai terrorist attack, they were succeeded in convincing the American government about the need of withdrawing their military from the Afghan frontier to concentrate them in the Indian border. “If the Pakistani government, which has condemned the Mumbai attack, is found to be involved, foreign policy analysts believe that could lead the longtime nuclear-armed rivals to the brink of all-out war." It could be disastrous," said Caroline Wadhams, a senior policy analyst for national security at the Center for American Progress”. (Stephen Clark) The Indian government is waiting for the responses of Pakistan government. India is trying to solve the issue through diplomatic methods. India has convinced almost all the super powers and other major countries about Pakistan’s involvement in the attack. The confession made by the terrorist who has been captured alive itself is sufficient to prove their involvement. If Pakistan failed to respond positively to the international call to take stern actions against the terrorists stationed in their soil, many political experts foresee a possible war between India and Pakistan. Since both of them possess nuclear weapons such a war could well end up in mass destruction. “The United States is treading softly, volunteering to send investigators to help piece the puzzle together, but the offer is being carefully handled so as not to offend Pakistan. The U.S., which recently signed a nuclear accord with India, has its hands full in Afghanistan and along the border it shares with Pakistan.”(Lots of suspects in Mumbai terrorist attack) US, is responding carefully to this issue. They do not want to disfavor Pakistan completely because of their interests in Pak aid in their war against the Taleban. At the same time, US want to improve ties between India also. The recently signed nuclear deal is the best example for this. Conclusion Human made disaster can happen anywhere any time. It is difficult to control terrorism single handily. Only through collective efforts from the part of nations, different societies and organizations, the terrorism can be reduced. Religious fundamentalism and unhealthy nationalism are the main causes of terrorism. Disaster preparedness programs must be formulated and people should be given training also in dealing with terrorism. References 1. Kingsbury Alex, December 1, 2008, 5 Lessons From the Deadly Mumbai Terrorist Attacks, Retrieved on March 3, 2009 from 2. What is Terrorism? Retrieved on March 3, 2009 from 3. Zalman Amy, Ph.D. Types of Terrorism, Retrieved on March 3, 2009 from 4. Mumbai rocked by deadly attacks, Retrieved on March 3, 2009 5. Stephen Clark, Mumbai Terrorist Attack May Affect U.S. Foreign Policy, Retrieved on March 3, 2009 from 6. Lots of suspects in Mumbai terrorist attack, Retrieved on March 3, 2009 from 7. AmeriCares Investing in Disaster Preparedness in India, Retrieved on March 2, 2009 from 8. Kurunduhewa Damith, Mumbai terror attack and corporate preparedness, Retrieved on March 2, 2009 from 9. Lobo Daniel ,Social Media and the Mumbai Attacks, Retrieved on March 2, 2009 m < http://disasterbound.org/node/70> 10. Upchurch Jim, Trauma Response Meets Disaster Preparedness , Retrieved on March 2, 2009 from Read More