TERRORISM: A problem that MUST be solved, [FINAL]

“Building up and not tearing down”- Richard Vague

That’s the belief of Richard Vague against terrorism. If force can’t terminate terrorism, then why still practice it? War is not a solution.

“Terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion….Common definitions in terrorism are those acts which are intended to create fear (terror)" (Wikipedia, September 2008)
“In terrorism, terrorist attack will have many direct and indirect victims.” (Dr. Mark Lerner,2006) As what people are introduced about terrorism, many will say that terrorism is present if there are bombings and killings by cutting their heads suicide bombers. Those are the things that will come out of many of the people’s mind if they hear the word. “Terrorism is recognizable by a following statement from the perpetrators:

a.) Violence
b.) Psychological impact and fear
c.) Deliberate targeting of non-combatants
d.) Disguise
e.) Unlawful or illegitimacy” (Wikipedia,2008)

Dr. Stephen Younger, Director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, recently lamented that too much effort has been placed on technological solutions to the war on terrorism, stating "this is not a technology problem" and asserting that "the single most important thing we can do to predict future acts of terrorism is to understand the causes of terrorism." Then what are the causes of Terrorism? Amy Zalman says, “There are two causes of terrorism: 1.) Social and Political Injustice: People choose terrorism when they are trying to right what they perceive to be a social or political or historical wrong—when they have been stripped of their land or rights, or denied these. 2.) The belief that violence or its threat will be effective, and usher in change. Another way of saying this is: the belief that violent means justify the ends. Many terrorists in history said sincerely that they chose violence after long deliberation, because they felt they had no choice.” Terrorism mostly become present because of terrorists attempts of putting down the government or the people who engages in ruling a country. In addition, one of the factors that causes terrorism was poverty.

To a research by Colonel Ahmad Al-Thagafi, Saudi Arabian National Guard, he state the economical, political, social, psychological, educational causes of terrorism. The outcomes are as follows:

Economic causes of terrorism:
“The shifting global economy greatly impacts the poorest communities and is one of the most important reasons for the growth of terrorism in the world.”

Political causes of terrorism:
“Two phenomena help explain the political motivation behind international
terrorism. First, there is a contradiction between the international political system’s charters (e.g., the UN Charter) which are based on values and ideals, and what is reflected in the actual behaviors of those actors in the system. Second, there is a clear lack of ability by the international community to respond to and stop irregularities, human rights violations, and other threats to security.”

Social Causes of Terrorism
Terrorists may be terrorized too, they may be terrorized when they’re still a child so they have come up terrorizing. Disrespect on one’s ideology may lead to terrorism. Varying of interpretations can be one of the causes in terrorism between two groups.

Psychological Causes of Terrorism
“There are numerous of psychological reasons leading to violence, terrorism and extremism that can be put into the following categories. First, there are inherent destructive psychological motivations. Second, the lack of self-control in individuals leads one to be manipulated and follow undesirable actions, ideologies, and leaders. Individuals who are manipulated may believe they are a symbol of strength, freedom and the ideals. Third, some individuals become frustrated when they are unable to achieve their goals, sense of belonging, their desires or position in life. This frustration leads to depression or low self worth in many young people. Fourth, megalomania is a mental disease where an individual is delusional in his belief about his own greatness and total disregard for human life. This delusion is not supported by any logic or reality. Adolf Hitler was a clear example of this character trait in his rise to power, the extermination of millions of Jews, gypsies, and other groups, and the administration of the war against his enemies. Fifth, the split personality is one of psychological factors in the recent emergence of violence, terrorism and extremism. This is the case of a person who is able to satisfactorily separate himself from facts, mistakenly underestimating conditions, and is devoid of feelings.”

Secretary of State for International Development of the UK, Hilary Benn (2005), argued that “terrorism can plant its roots in poverty. Corruption, poor governance, economic mismanagement and a lack of representative politics all can play a part in alienating and radicalizing poor people.”

Terrorism erodes at both individual and community level. Terrorism may result to once psychological trauma especially for the children who have been present on the attempt. It also may cause a Community to experience poverty because of their damaged properties like companies that pays much tax that helps a country. Terrorism can not only destroy ones property but also a country’s reputation among their neighbors because others may think that that country was not a peaceful country and they may be harmed when they visit that kind of country and so on. There are many things or effects of terrorism that people can think of. Nature too, can be destroyed by some terrorist attacks, some ideological type of terrorism may also be one of the reasons of Global warming that we are encountering as of today. Some of these terrorists tactics were killings of whales that is widely done in Japan also the arson can hurt our nature not only the people who owns that property. Those bombings cause Carbon Dioxide that is thinning the ozone layer and cause global warming. A bombing attempt on a day on one country is not only that country’s problem but will be a problem worldwide and may be hard to be resolved.

Terrorism causes a country terrible. It made people grieve and feel unsafe of their own country. Terrorism must be resolved because of those harmful effects on the people that have been in the incidents. So what does people thinking to terminate terrorism? Many said that it’s hard to stop terrorism so they proposed to stop it with full force. So, there comes Counter Terrorism that enables the military, police and others to catch or put into jail those suspected terrorists and have some kind of “war” against them. No proposed force did terminate terrorism because this world is too powerful that no one can destroy it unless we will unite and help each other against it stop it. “We can accomplish far more in the so-called Òwar on terrorÓ by building up than by tearing down.” (Richard Vague, May 27) A fight with forces, guns, bombs will be fought back by the same strategies. We should take the risk to talk to those people and dig upon them what causes them to terrorize and make a move through it. According also to Richard Vague, “we should focus this building up in places like Morocco, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Turkey--countries that are already on that tenuous path to political and economic democracy—because positive accomplishments in any Muslim nation will have good effect in all other Muslim nations.” If people want peace terribly then we should take risk on building up some friendly talk with them. It may be hard but it’s not bad to try.