Terrorism and Its Indirect Victims - Essay Example

Of course, we can't forget the many police, firefighters, and other people on the streets who were buried in rubble or hit with falling bricks or other types of debris. All of these describe the direct victims are a terrorist attack, those who were killed or maimed. In the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building, we find many direct victims as well, though these numbers were nowhere near the thousands who lost their lives when the two planes crashed into the World Trade Center Twin Towers.

It is not difficult to understand and visualize these victims and what the direct effect was on them from these attacks. These are the direct victims; those who suffered death or severe injury from a terrorist attack. On the other end of the scope, there are the indirect victims. Who or what are these indirect victims The first one that comes to mind for anyone is the families of the direct victims: wives, children, parents, other relatives, and friends. These are the ones who suffer, being without a loved one on which they depended either emotionally or financially.

Additionally, according to a review published October 4, 2001 by InView (http://www.newss.ksu.edu/WEB/News/InView/100401terrorism.html), the psychological effects of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center will last for quite a long time. "There will be a lot of people who will suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. We saw it with the Oklahoma City bombing and those who were in Vietnam," Rappoport said. "Some people will not recover too well and the emotional damage will be permanent (Paragraph 5).

"The indirect effects of terrorism can often be worse than the direct effects, The victim, if he or she survives, recovers from the physical injuries, but the emotional damage, a indirect result of the attack, is likely to continue for many years. For those victims who have lost their lives, as the many during the attacks on the World Trade Center, the psychological damage to their loved ones will continue for many years to come. The loved ones are going to have to continue without the presence of the person who was directly affected by the terrorist attack, and that is going to be a difficult task to accomplish.

For the wives and children, the effects will be more long term because suddenly one woman must become both mother and father when her psychological well-being is not at its highest peak. The hardest part is that it's not going to go away like it does during an auto accident; these are events the family and children will face on a daily basis. It is likely that both the Oklahoma City Bombings and the attacks on the World Trade Center are events that later generations will be reading in their Social Studies and History classes.

What about the terrorists Can we classify them as victims as well Certainly, they are responsible for a horrendous act of violence, but at the same time, it may not always be of their own free will. An article from the April 2005 ChronWatch and published on the Internet (http://www.newss.ksu.edu/WEB/News/InView/100401terrorism.html, "Why Good Muslims Become Terrorists") explains the effect that a belief in Islam has on its people. These excerpts from the original article written by Ali Sina explains that it is not the Muslims