TerrorismEssay Preview: TerrorismReport this essayTerrorism is defined in Websters New World Dictionary as, to use force or threats to intimidate, etc., especially as a political policy. Intimidate is similarly defined as, to make afraid, as with threats. Threats is a common word used in both definitions and when people are threatened, they feel terror therefore they are terrorized. Terrorism doesnt always come with the stereotypical Russians or Middle Eastern rebels that want to attack the US. Terror can come from all ages, races, political beliefs, and countries. An example of each can be: ages-school shootings, races- KKK, political beliefs-Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing or (anti) abortionist supporters, and countries-Iraq. Terrorism can come in all shapes and sizes of bombs, people, and verbal threats. I will try to touch on each of these subjects throughout the paper. A survey of politically motivated crimes since April 1995 reveals a dramatic increase in terroristic activities. At least thirty-nine cases have been documented. Many have not been as sever as the federal building bombing, but they have been in the forms of pipe bombs, police stand-offs, bank robberies, attacks on abortion providers and many others. (Terror from Within-MSNBC) However, some terrorist attacks are not preformed by Americans. An example of one of two documented cases of outside terrorism attacks on the United States is the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993. (The Centre for National Security Studies, April 26, 1995) The US is now a big target for outside terrorism and we always will be as long as we are a powerful nation with a large amount of pull. People in other countries see what America has to offer and want us to be eliminated to make their country the most powerful. The people that do plan and act out on these terrorist acts usually have a
psychiatric problem. We watch the movies that glorify the hero going into a foreign land and fighting the bad guy. James Bond is a perfect example of glorifying terrorists lives.
He travels all over the world to stop the villains from blowing up England. He makes it all look fun and exciting while doing his job. Austin Powers is another example of terrorists. Austin Powers is a totally different view of the subject, but the idea is still fun. We sometimes glorify terrorists lives in movies by making them rich and highly respected by their employees and contacts with other powerful people. We, the audience, see these movies and fantasize about being the hero or villain. Cops and Robbers is a perfect example of good against evil, but foreign terrorists have an aura or certain mystique quality. We want to have the power and wealth they do and we also want to have the cunning actions of the hero. International terrorism, to me, is very mysterious and full of wonder. It is very frightening but it makes me wonder of the life behind the ringleader of the terrorist groups and his entourage. The part I dont understand is how important national security is to the US. I take the military and government for granted and thank them very much for doing their job. School shooting are another form of terrorism. We send our kids to school thinking that they are in a safe environment. We send them there to learn and grow up to be responsible adults. We try to teach our kids to the best of our abilities, but sometimes there are some that fall through the cracks and become the bad apple. Just like the old adage, one bad apple spoils the whole bunch, it can become so very true and real. Columbine High School recently commemorated the first year after the shooting. I remember watching CNN Headline New and MSNBC
while the students were being rushed out of the school. A few other shooting occurred recently and I was worried about if any students were hurt I the events unfolding before
my eyes. In the beginning, I assumed nothing happened but soon found out otherwise. I think why this story touched me a little bit more is because I watched all the events
unfold that day and the media hype to follow. We grieve for the victims and some even learn to forgive Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. The shooters parents also feel remorse for what their terrorist sons did to the school, the community, the state, and the country. The parents of the terrorists seem to be caring and are struggling with the loss of a child like the victims parents. We have not heard much about these families and with good reason. The parents didnt see it coming and most likely would have stopped it if they knew. (Rocky Mountain News.com, Lynn Bartels, April 15, 2000) Attacks on schools arent happening just recently. A bombing on a school in Bath, Michigan happened in 1927 and forty plus students and teachers were killed. Most of the students in the wing were of kindergarten age. A demented farmer and electrician with access to dynamite decided to blow up the west wing of Bath Consolidated grade school. His motives were not clear. A. E. Kehoe killed his wife, the treasurer of the school district, outside their home before going to the school. Kehoe apparently had been planning this scheme for months and could have leveled the whole school if all the dynamite fuses were timed together. Kehoe was seen running to his car parked on the curb moments before the blast. He also ended up dying along with the schools principal, the village postmaster, and an unidentified man in an explosion that wrecked Kehoes automobile. After the explosion
had hurled helpless, young victims through the air, another explosion rocked the school and sent the walls and ceiling into the air and on top of the already injured children. The
dust most likely muffled the sparks of the dynamite for the west wing, and as a result, the spark never reached the dynamite to cause it to explode. The west wing was saved due to
rubble and faulty technology. If his plan had been carried out correctly, he would have killed two hundred sixty students. Police found a note on his barn door that stated,
Criminals are made, not born. (Boulder News.com, collection of stories compiled on April 25, 1999) School attacks are not new. As long as we have those crazies out there, terrorism in the schools will be there. We dont know where or when it will happen, but it will. Just a few months ago in Champaign, a guy that was irritated with his parents chased his mother into a school. Thankfully no one in the school was hurt and his motives were not to kill any children. That example is precisely my point. We dont know who will be the next target and whose school it will be. Judging by what I hear from experts, they say it is hard to tell which students are the ones most susceptible to being influenced by others or lashing out on people at any time. Certain characteristics of the
kings are highly likely to cause this. They are not a minority. This is just being an observer. Nobody can stop them. You can look the other way and say it is hard to know which students will be the greatest at getting into the school at any point in time, or why children will be targeted. It doesn’t work that way, at least not for the majority of school shootings. But these terrorists have very particular abilities, and they may be able to create a lot of tension between the minority students and their white peers. And some think that their motivation could be different, either to target white folks or the law or the political class at large. In my opinion, these terrorist families are not being trained to become more extremist as people are, or they are playing a lot of sports, or they are a lot of partying, not really. They are just a bad group of killers. I don’t want to believe that, the people who would do this would create a situation in which they are not trained for, or are not capable of being responsible for, this. This would not have any kind of racial context. It would seem that the terrorists want to create a different, perhaps even an even more extreme environment. If so, we may not have the answer either way. It seems that at least the terrorists are taking steps to remove people from the school. But this seems to be the case with the people on school property or in the school security system. The terrorists target people, but nobody has brought a case. Most people at the school didn’t even attempt to get a hold of the man who was not responsible for his actions. The man was just so busy with drugs and alcohol he missed out on a few opportunities to meet and talk with people. The school security system has not dealt with this situation well. If the terrorist has been given the chance of meeting his targets in the future, I cannot think that he would consider coming to the school. Maybe at some point he will. Maybe he will simply not be. But that is unlikely. If he is allowed to come for that good cause, then so be it. Then once he finds himself in the head of a terrorist group, he has to change his behavior, and he doesn’t want to try to be different. He does not want to be a part of the threat or the future of this country. He wants revenge. He wants him to start over. So do I. A little more from my perspective? It is very well known that an attack like this has far-reaching social implications that take years. People can be radicalized if they do things the right way, when the consequences are so devastating. Some people get too comfortable with their lifestyles and get too scared to get out when the consequences bring out the worst instincts. It is usually when something is perceived as too risky or too dangerous to be done, that someone does the bad or right thing and does things the wrong way. Because of this, we often do some kind of