Critical Evaluation of Our Times - Essay Example

Critical evaluation of our times Introduction May 2, Sunday, I woke up to the news that Osama bin Laden, a terrorist, who was on top of the list of the most wanted men in the world, had been killed. This commendable job was done by the US Navy Seals under close direction of the US Security team and the US President Barrack Obama. I felt a sense of relief that this whole pandemic of terrorism had been cleared and that people would now live in peace and harmony without much worrying. Terrorism, when analyzed critically, has cost the lives of many people of the world and thus the need for its fighting by everyone who values life Terrorism as a major global challenge of the 21st century The history of terrorism dates back to between 10th and 14th century in Syria and Iran. It originated from the Hashhashin, whose English word came to be known as ‘assassins’. They were an unknown Islamic group that killed the Abbasid and Seljuk who were political figures. They cannot be compared with the modern day terrorists due to their failure to use the media and other forms of communication to create a sense of terror to the people. Modern terrorism is experienced virtually everywhere in the world unlike the assassins of Syria and Iran who were only confined to those two countries (Jeroen et al 20). The history of modern terrorism dates back to 1793 during the Reign of Terror as initiated by Maxmilien Robespierre, who was one of the heads of the new state during the French revolution. He killed the enemies of revolution and mounted totalitarianism in order to regain national stability. To him, his methods were just in the monarchical transformation to liberal democracy. He said that for one to be right as a founder of the republic, he or she needs to pacify by terror the opponents of freedom. With his sentiments, the foundation for modern terror was laid to teach that violence will lead to a better system. But the featuring of terrorism as a state action faded, whereas the thought of terror as an attack against the prevailing political order eventually was more noticeable (Schmalleger, 109). At the start of 1950s, there was the emergence of non-state terrorism that entailed the rise of guerilla tactics that was being orchestrated by the non-state actors. This had been widely done in the last half of the 20th century. The thriving of tribal nationalism such as the Zionist; the anti-colonial utterances in France and Britain as well as the ideologies like communism were some of the guerrilla tactics (Fukuyama, 45). In clear terms, the terrorist groups of the 20th century with a one united national goal started forming in every corner of the world. For instance, the Kurds distinct and ethnic group of Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria sought for a national backing since the start of the 20th Century. The Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PPK) was started in the 1970s and it used terrorist techniques to show its focus for a Kurdish State. Similarly, the Irish republican army was established from the quest by the Irish Catholics to have their own country, and be independent of the Great Britain. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are the Sri Lankans, who comprise the Tamil minority tribe and use suicide bombing and other inhuman tactics to run a battle for their independence from the Sinhalese who are the majority of their government (Miller & Broad, 78). Terrorism started turning international in the 1970s. It had now become an international and prominent issue where hijacking had become a darling of the terrorists. For instance in 1968, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine staged a hijack on an El Al Flight. This was not done, after almost twenty years, there was the bombing of a Pan Am Flight, Lockerbie, Scotland which brought the world to a standstill. During this era, terrorism was now seen as a highly scheduled, theoretical and carefully executed plan which had symbolic deeds of violence done by the terrorists who had certain grievances that seemed political (Borger, 61). The Munich gory events of 1972 appeared to be politically inspired. This changed the way the United States handled terrorism. In Munich, a Palestinian group called Black September kidnapped and executed Israeli athletes who were in their preparation for the completion. Their goal was to bring international attention to them by negotiating the release of Palestinian prisoners through outstanding tactics. This is when words such as ‘counterterrorism’ and ‘international terrorism’ befitted use in the Washington’s political arena (Cameron, 56). During these days is when terrorism in the United States of America emerged. This was with the groups such as the Weatherman, which developed from a non-violent group known as Students for a Democratic Society. They however later turned to violent methods which ranged from revolting to setting off bombs in order to dispute the Vietnam War (Clinton, 15). The end of the 20th Century and the start of the twenty first century saw the world being treated with the religious war and beyond. This was religiously motivated, thus seen as the most alarming terrorist threat today. Here is when the likes of Osama Bin Laden came into limelight and their Jihad tactics. This is through groups such as Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Al-Shabaab, and Hamas justify their violence on Islamic grounds and are the ones which come in mind with the mention of today’s terrorism. This has led to other religions such as Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism and other forms of religion to come up with their own forms of militant extremism. Karen Armstrong, a religion scholar, views this as the terrorists’ withdrawal from any real religious principles. The planner of the 9/11 attack, Muhammad Atta, was an alcoholic and with a very observant Muslim, alcohol is sternly off the parameters. Counterterrorism may refer to government’s countermeasures to fight terrorism, the policy actions planned that alter democratic establishments, procedures and standards. In broader terms, counterterrorism measures have had several consequences. Some of these consequences include the diminishing of democracy in a country, denial of individual rights and values and change the patterns of governance amongst others. Despite there being existence of such dire consequences, terrorism of the twenty first century as compared with the previous forms of terrorism must be dealt with in order to reserve the safety of the state (Crenshaw, 56) Governments of the world must team up to come up with ways of combating terrorism. Some of the approaches which need to be taken into consideration include the scientific approach. With this way, there must be a set of data which in this case represents the terrorist universe. There must not be any form of bias and all samples be in use. But there has been a problem with understanding this approach by many scholars. In the study of terrorism, three levels of study have always been in use. They are the micro-level, the macro and the middle-range level but the most commonly used is the micro-level. This level is based on the supposition that there is something dissimilar around terrorists that makes them act that way, especially when they turn against themselves and kill each other. Here, we turn to clinicians from the psychological department and demand an explanation. These clinicians will excavate deeper into upbringings of their patients to find out what is wrong. Here, two assumptions come to play; one is that there is something personally wrong with the terrorist and two that the explanation is to be found in their backgrounds (Meselson, Guillemin & Hugh-Jones, 225). Case studies are then collected by the health providers since that is how they are trained to be. From here, they try to simplify these case pasts to other potential extremists. The job of some psychologists is always useful due to them having actually spoken to or extensively studied terrorists either after the terrorists has given up violence or when they are in prison. They therefore generalize from disputed theories and select matters from the most liked media to provide incomplete backing for their points of view. This approach however comes up with some problems. The most foremost problem is that we can never know how essential or extensive the problem of terrorism is by simply studying discrete terrorists. It doesn’t answer the question of the number of terrorist we have in our general population. For the case of Al-Shabaab or Al-Qaeda, it doesn’t give the exact number of people involved in actual terrorizing or killing or are we winning or losing the war? (Sageman, 13). In Africa for instance, any U S efforts aimed at combating terrorism should be a coordinated effort that comprises multiagency capabilities to address not only known terrorists but also the underlying conditions which might be environmental in nature. With this in place, the fight against terrorism will receive a boost hence ensuring for peaceful coexistence of persons. People will therefore think of development thus helping in reducing the poverty level in Africa (Purkitt, 18). Conclusion Terrorism is every person’s problem in the 21st century, and with keen observation, it is evolving into much complex and the use of biological weapons in this religious terrorism might rise a notch higher. 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