Analysis of Global Terrorism by Lutz and Lutz - Book Report/Review Example

Terrorism Name: Course: Lecturer: Date: Part 1 reading and discussions Discussion 1-Chapters 5 of the textbook What are some of the key factors that contributed to the rise of terrorism in Israel in the post WW2 period? There are several reasons to the rise of terrorism in post WW2, the first reason was due to the victory that Israel achieved over Arabic nations in 1948, its independence day. The Arabic nations attacked in units, a factor that led to the Israeli victory. These units became the basis of terrorist development. Secondly, after Israel was declared an independent state by UN in 1948, it expanded its borders at the expense of the neighboring Palestine’s. This resulted in increased attacks from independent units in a terrorism fashion. The environment created by frequent conflicts between Arabic nations and Israel created a sound environment for terrorism to thrive. Hezbollah in particular do not recognize Israel as a legitimate state and they continually fight them (Lutz & Lutz, 2004). Should the West involve itself in combatting terrorism against Israel? This question has twinned in nature, yes the west, particularly the US are more interested in a stable Israel because of the economic and military gain that they get as a result. This is why the US has publicly supported Israel since WW2. In order for the west to assert their presence, Israel is the best avenue because of its significant difference with the neighboring nations like Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and the rest. Israel is simply the best outfit for the west because they share substantial characteristics (Lutz & Lutz, 2004). On the contrary, combatting terrorist attacking Israel means that the west gets into Middle East political turmoil and the end result is increased terrorist numbers against the west. This is evident in the recent past decade incidence of attacks in London and the US. Discussion 2-Chapter 9 of the textbook Is the Irish IRA issue a religious or cultural problem? The IRA issue is a cultural and a religious problem because since 1860s, the goal of IRA was to fight for the independence of Ireland. Later on, due to internal wrangles, the IRA began splitting forming different groups who claimed to run the main IRA. Groups such as official IRA, provisional IRA, continuity IRA, and the real IRA started emerging. The reason for the emergence of these groups was self-interest (Lutz & Lutz, 2004). On the other hand, IRA proves to be a religious outfit through its political wing Sinn Féin which has represented the interest of Irish Catholics since the 20th century. The attack on British army after the violent protest between Protestants and Catholics also shows how IRA issue is more religious. How effective was the British government in dealing with the IRA? The British government has been effective in dealing with IRA, the key to the success of the British government in securing peace with the IRA was the existence of the back channel which was employed to communicate and negotiate ceasefire and eventually a permanent peace process. Despite the fact that this connection was shrouded in secrecy, its existence was the pillar to a permanent peace solution (Lutz & Lutz, 2004). The British government continued with this path until major milestones of securing peace was achieved. In the public realm, this link could have been disputed in a democratic nation but nonetheless, its existence provided vital to getting permanent peace among the two groups. Discussion-Chapters 3 and 5 of the textbook What are Al Qaeda's aims? The main goal of Al Qaeda is to diminish American influence on Muslim nations, particularly Saudi Arabia. The other aim is to put an end to Israel as a state and withdraw all pro-Western leaderships in the Middle East. As such, the Al Qaeda leader Bin Laden declared that his aim was to unite Islamic nations in adherence to the first Caliphs (Lutz & Lutz, 2004). In order to achieve this, Bin Laden asserted that it is necessary for the Islam to unit and wage holy war on the U.S. in order to secure all the Islamic nations from the influence of America and non-Muslims in particular. How does Al Qaeda spread its message? The key means of Al Qaeda message dissemination is the media, the Al Qaeda has taken advantage through its top leadership in Bin Laden and Al Zahawiri to spread its messages through Islamic media houses. More so, the actions of Al Qaeda help in emphasizing on their goals in relation to the Islamic faith. Al Qaeda has gained some substantial gain from its actions, the Algeria, Madrid railway bombing and London bombing coupled with the twin tower bombing have cemented their goals and the groups message to the world (Lutz & Lutz, 2004). This unit has as a result gained more influence. The other known message dissemination mechanism is through couriers, this means eventually led the US forces to Bin Laden’s hiding place in Abbottabad. Discussion-Chapters 3 and 5 of the textbook How effective was the international communities response to 9/11? In my opinion, the international communities were effective in their response to the 9/11 incident. There was an overwhelming reaction in support of the US across the world. Many countries donated goods, blood and other forms of support to the US in response to the tragedy. In 12th September 2001 in the wake of the 9/11 attack, the French newspaper, Le Monde put a headline “We are all Americans” as a sign of support for the United States and against the terrorist (Lutz & Lutz, 2004). Russian president categorically said that the attack was blatant challenge on humanity, a statement that was echoed across Europe and the rest of the world. In summary, there was an overwhelming international reaction to condemn terrorism and it marked the beginning of war against terrorism. How significant is the difference between the Afghanistan and Iraq wars in relation to combatting terrorism from al-Qaeda? The difference between the Afghanistan and Iraq war is really small. This is because the aim of both wars was to win against terrorism in the end. There are however some differences in the reasons behind the war, Afghanistan was a direct war on Al Qaeda because the US intelligence had gathered evidence on presence of Bin Laden in the region. On the contrary, the war in Iraq was to topple a dictator who seemingly could provide safe havens for terrorist like Bin Laden. The war in Iraq was however full of controversy as the world and especially the Arab world view the war as an attack on a stable country with vested interest (Lutz & Lutz, 2004). Discussion-Chapter 6 of the textbook Why did Hamas break from the PLO? Hamas broke away from the Palestine Liberation Organization mainly because of the political and ideological differences. The Hamas who won a majority of seats in 2006 and gained substantial control of the Gaza. The PLO and Fatah its faction saw Hamas as a counter to its political supremacy in Palestine and consequently engaged in fights that forced PLO forces out of Gaza and into the control of Hamas. Essentially, the key differences that led to the break was the political views, Hamas through its founder Yahya Ayash masterminded several suicide bombings that helped them assert their supremacy (Lutz & Lutz, 2004). The goal of Hamas was to completely destroy Israel, PLO goal was to contain them and hence the ideological split. Is there a prospect for peace in the Middle East? There is a prospect for peace in the Middle East despite the fragile nature of the region. Nonetheless, peace will come with difficulty. To achieve a sustainable peace treaty, the warring groups need to be willing to drop their weapons and negotiate for agreements. The issue of territory and boarder issues around Jerusalem need to be sorted once and for all (Lutz & Lutz, 2004). The Palestine need to acknowledge the existence of Israel as a state and the Israeli administration need to accommodate their Arabic neighbors. Lastly, the international community is largely tipped to spearhead lasting peace in the Middle East through continuous seas fires. Part 2 Biggest Prison escape in UK and Ireland History - IRA Breakout (Documentary The 1983 Maze prison escape is one of the greatest prison escape since WW2. The Maze prison was considered one of the most secure prison with limited chances of escape. The prison fence was 15-foot tall and a large barbed wire at the top. The prison escape was organized by prisoners in support of the external parties, IRA. Guns were smuggled into the prison in preparation of the prison escape. The plan to escape was done for months before the daring escape was commenced in 25 September 1983. The prisoners started by taking control or the cell units. They started with H7. Prison officers were attacked by hand help weapons and taken hostage. The attack was violent and resulted in a number of stubs on the prison officers who resisted the hostage. It took the prisoners about 20 minutes to control H7. They went on to control other cell blocks and took officers hostage. In the process, a lorry carrying food stuff entered the prison, without any sign of alarm the lorry was attacked and the driver given instructions on the route to use when the escape was mastered. The gatehouse guarding the outside perimeter was also captured and officers held hostage, despite the attempts to raise an alarm. At gun point, the officers reported the alarm as an accidental alarm. With some few officers aware of the escape plan, they blocked the exit using their cars. Nonetheless, despite the chaotic last try to escape, the military was already alerted and the prisoners, around 38 of them managed to breach the perimeter of the prison and successfully make their way out. Others were captured because of the failed plan from the IRA to provide them with necessary transport and support from the prison. The Maze prison was considered one of the greatest breakouts because it was considered escape proof. PBS America at a Crossroads: JIHAD The Men and Ideas Behind Al-Qaeda Men and ideas behind Al-Qaeda, America at crossroads is a documentary that seeks to provide and in-depth understanding into the modern radical Islamic groups. It does this by analyzing the ideas as well as the beliefs that inspired them to become radical and bitter towards the west and its allies. It also analyses the challenges that they pose to Middle East. The documentary opens up the inside story of the world biggest organized terrorist group with the help of people who planned, met and even lived with the key Al-Qaeda leaders: Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden and the late Abu Musab Al Zarqawi. The film shows how the evolving ideology of violence and hatred towards the West and specifically America grew over the years. The film examines the structure of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1940s and how it gave a means to other existing Islamic Jihadist today. In order to have a comprehensive story, the documentary seeks the perspectives of the Islam from the Middle East, West and U.S. intelligence experts who were on the frontline on the fight against Al-Qaeda. It also explores the perspectives of the contemporaries as well as friends of Osama bin Laden. The baseline of the documentary is to explore how peaceful and noble religion of Islam was distorted by extremist in the name of Jihad. BBC Panorama: The Spies Who Fooled The World The BBC panorama documentary explores the lies that cemented the reason to invade Iraq. It is thought to be one of the biggest lies that led to a war. The Downing street and the White house heavily relied on the propaganda from the two Iraqi spies that led to the joint decision to invade Iraq because it had Weapons of Mass Destruction, WMD as it is known today. One of the spies, Mr Janabi arrived as an Iraqi asylum seeker at a German refugee in 1999 and claimed that he was a chemical engineer. This attracted the attention of the German intelligence service. Mr Janabi explained how he had witnessed a number of mobile biological laboratories mounted on trucks in order to avoid detection. Despite the fact that the Germans doubted this, they went ahead and shared with the British and Americans who apparently trusted the source. Another spied appeared, he revealed that he was former intelligence officer in Iraq, he name was Maj Muhammad Harith. He cemented the previous claim by stating that he had been involved in ordering Renault trucks to ferry the mobile biological laboratories. He made a journey to Jordan where is revealed this to the Americans who apparently seemed to agree with him especially because of the previous revelation. Despite the evidence to the contrary as M16 had, America and Britain proceeded to go to the war. Westminster Faith Debate: What have we learned about Radicalisation? The Westminster Faith Debate on Radicalization was aimed at exploring what radicalization or extremism means and if it is unique to Islam and if it is always a religious issue. It also aimed at establishing if the phenomenon was unique or new or simply a new label for certain forms of terrorist violence. The debate mostly relied on research findings to give conclusion on the case. As such, there are several findings from the report which apparently helped in shading light to challenges affecting the modern day world in general. Some of the conclusions from the debate is that there is too much and too little about radicalization. Too little because the focus on mainly on Islam or other religious forms of terrorism, too much on the other hand because not all radical ideas lead to violence. The research has also found out that there are more causes of violence other than radicalization. One of such causes include grievance and isolation, and the mislead belief that violence will hem to remedy the problem. Other causes include association with networks that are perceived to be causing violence. The debate concluded that the best way to dealing with growing misconceptions about radicalization and increasing violence is through education and enlightening people on the need to be radical but still uphold respect for human life. Hamas Rulers of Gaza Documentary Film on Palestine The documentary covers Hamas, a group that grew as an organized terrorist group that overwhelmed other groups such as Hezbollah. Since it was founded, it has been responsible for about 400 Israeli. They claim that they want revenge against Israel which occupies their land. Despite the challenges that they have faced, the group has continued growing and have recently won political seats. This is a clear sign of a political force which is growing in size and could potentially take over Gaza strip and the west banks. One notable concern with the Hamas is its usage of underage and half trained soldiers to manage their security in the region. Hamas has its origins from the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas has insisted on transforming Jihad from the inside to the outside. The basis of its origin the need to go back and understand the Muslim faith in order to have the right knowledge and determination to protect Islam from invasion from Israel. Hamas also grew out of despair and the frustration from the Yassar Arafat rule and his PLO. The consequences of continuous war and torment have increased extremism among the members of the Hamas. Hamas has tried to change the course of the war by fighting as an organized army. References Lutz, J.M., & Lutz, B.J. (2004).Global Terrorism. London: Routledge. Read More