Political, Psychological, vilolence in terrorism - Case Study Example

Blank 22 February Political, Psychological, Violence in Terrorism Terrorism is a form of Low Intensity Conflict and an instrument of modern warfare. This form of warfare is not new and history is full of acts of terrorism carried out by groups, communities and countries against each other. Terrorism has no face and terrorists carry out brutal acts against humanity in every conceivable way. Violence is the hallmark of any terrorist act. It has been observed that terrorists carry out their acts so as to gain a wider publicity to achieve their political and psychological motives.

A terrorist would not do his act where he could not give a political or psychological blow to his perceived enemy. On 12 October 2000 two terrorist drove a boat laden with explosives into USS Cole stopped for refueling at a Yemeni port of Aden seriously damaging the ship while killing 17 crewmembers and injuring 39. The incident resulted in far reaching political and psychological impacts on global basis. Political Impacts. Political impacts of this terrorist action include exposing weaknesses in US maritime operations and military forces standard operating procedures, diplomatic row with host nations, US realized that she is far more dependent on regional nations in fight against terrorism, need to identify new tactics by terrorists every time they strike, shattering US confidence on host nation, wider media coverage of mass causalities and destruction, need for US forces to analyze versatilities and re-evaluation of envisaged patterns of future attacks, requirement for continuous study of TTP- tactics, techniques and procedures adopted by terrorists , threat to host nations supporting US policies or providing logistics, ( web) motivation provided to terrorists by fatwa given by Usama Bin Laden in 1998 to attack US targets, ability of terrorists to work internationally, support received by US forces by host and neighboring governments in the aftermath of attack in contrast to claims of terrorist organizations, insistence of Yemeni Government to maintain its sovereignty in the post attack investigations.

Psychological Impact Terrorist showed that they could choose target and timing of attack on their will, demoralizing of US Nation and US Forces, ability of terrorists to monitor pattern of US ships deployment, shattering confidence of US Forces in local population making difficult for locals to approach US Forces, weakness in training and alertness of US Forces. The violent terrorist act against USS Cole reminds us that better coord and intelligence sharing is required againt terrorists at all levels.

Effective counter strategy is also required to offset political and psychological impacts of violence associated with terrorism. Works Cited John S and Jane L, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/terrorism/international/fatwa_1998.html.1996-MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, Al Qaeda’s Fatwa, Online News Hour,Web.22 February 2011.