User talk:Brain thefurious

Terrorism – A Global Issue

Terrorism is one of the most serious challenges the world faces today. It is war against democracy and crime against humanity. It has crossed national boundaries and has international ramifications. It is a new variant of genocide which threatens national unity and sovereignty. Terrorism in one way is a new threat to humanity in the 21st century. Terrorism is violence used by a few against fellow human beings. Terrorist have total disregard for human lives including their own. Violence is an essential part of terrorism. Terrorism is a systematic use of violence or the threat of violence to achieve specific political goals. It attempts to use violence to cause widespread panic, fear or terror to achieve its ultimate political aim. This fusion of crime and politics gives birth to terrorism. Terrorist use violence to demoralize the government and ultimately push them to a situation of counter violence. In this struggle it is the civilian population which suffers the most – physically, mentally and economically. Terrorism which is confined within the national boundary and is directed against one’s own government is called Insurgency.

Few words are as politically or emotionally charged as terrorism. One 1988 study by the US Army found that over 100 definitions of the word "terrorism" have been used. Acts of terrorism are not intended to merely victimize or eliminate those who are killed, injured or taken hostage but rather to intimidate and influence the societies to which they belong. Modern terrorism has come to be defined in part by the influential power of the mass media that terrorists co-opt in their efforts to amplify and broadcast feelings of intense fear and anger. As a type of unconventional warfare, terrorism is designed to weaken or supplant existing political landscapes through capitulation or acquiescence as opposed to subversion or action. “Terrorist attacks" are usually characterized as "indiscriminate", "targeting of civilians" or executed "with disregard for human life". The term "terrorism" is often used to assert that the political violence of an enemy is immoral, wanton and unjustified. According to the most common definition of terrorism typically used by states, academics, counter-terrorism experts and non-governmental organizations, "terrorists" are actors who don't belong to any recognized armed forces or who don't adhere to the laws of war and who are, therefore, regarded as "rogue actors". Those who are accused of being "terrorists" rarely identify themselves as such and, instead, typically use terms that refer to their ideological or ethnic struggle, such as: separatist, freedom fighter, liberator, revolutionary, vigilante, militant, paramilitary, guerrilla, rebel, jihadi or mujaheddin, or fedayeen or any one of similar-meaning words in a number of languages. Terrorism has been used by a broad array of organizations to further their objectives. They including right-wing and left-wing political parties, nationalistic and religious groups, revolutionaries and ruling governments. Terrorism in the past was found in different places. Terrorism [terrorism] the threat or use of violence, often against the civilian population, to achieve political or social ends, to intimidate opponents, or to publicize grievances. The term dates from the Reign of Terror (1793-94) in the French Revolution but has taken on additional meaning in the 20th cent. Terrorism involves activities such as assassinations, bombings, random killings, and hijackings. Used for political, not military, purposes, and most typically by groups too weak to mount open assaults, it is a modern tool of the alienated, and its psychological impact on the public has increased because of extensive coverage by the media. Political terrorism also may be part of a government campaign to eliminate the opposition, as under Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin , and others, or may be part of a revolutionary effort to overthrow a regime. Terrorist attacks also are now a common tactic in guerrilla warfare. Governments find attacks by terrorist groups difficult to prevent; international agreements to tighten In the past few decades India has been badly affected by terrorist. Some hostile countries encourage fundamentalist forces, separatist tendencies and terrorism in India. As a result, secularism in India, which is built upon the principle of unity in diversity, gets adversely affected. Terrorism poses a direct threat to national sovereignty, territorial integrity and democracy in India. Some well known terrorist in India are People’s war group (PWG), Maoists communists centre (MCC) and the IKF. The world too has seen many terrorist in the past few years. The whole world has been shaken by the destruction caused by these terrorists. The major terrorist associations are Al-Qaeda and Taliban. Al-Qaeda was a association created by the great Taliban leader Osama Bin Ladein who ruthlessly caused the destruction of the World Trade Centre, Washington D.C on 9th September 2001. He also crashed an airplane on the Pentagon, USA.

Al-Qaeda or Al-Qaida is an armed Sunni Islamic organization with the stated objective of eliminating foreign influence in Muslim countries. The most prominent members of the group are adherents of Wahabism, an extreme, militant sect of Islam. While Osama Bin Ladein is generally recognized as the group’s leader, the group’s operations are not centralized, and many independent and collaborative cells exist in multiple countries linked by a common cause. As a matter of fact, all sectors are put to a stand still due to these terror strikes. The direct effect of these is seen in the sudden drop in the markets. The stock prices do drop down and the trading comes to a stand still, however the business seldom stops and the markets show their cushioning effect by regaining the vigor. But at times the loss of even trading day can be fatal to a country’s economy. Such attacks also incur a direct burden on the defense budget. It goes without saying that the governments do take desperate measures to minimize the losses and cover the country against the future threats. The new areas of defense research open up and thus fresh jobs are created. This brighter side of the attacks is over-shadowed by the loss of lives and panic that is created with in the country. The government, under such circumstances, looses the track of their priorities and the developmental works are sidelined. This causes damage to civic society. The worst hit by terrorist activities is the third world countries. The terrorists make these vulnerable counties their bases and from here carry out the destructive activities. Their influence in such countries shows and threatens the developed world of their power and dominance. Thus such countries make an appropriate guinea pig. If a terrorists strike a big country or a city, the whole world knows about it. The tragedy with these countries is that their miseries are not broadcasted because of their non connectivity with the rest of the world. They are thus the breeding grounds of terrorism and worst hit areas by this destructive activity. Five years after the 9/11, the main security threat faced by nations is not Al-Qaeda. It is the growing ability of small groups to inflict levels of damage unprecedented in history, and the growing inability of nations to check it. Through history, the state has been powerful and individuals weak. But education and technology have now made small groups powerful enough to threaten or decimate the state. This is true of both Islamic and non-Islamic groups. It is Trans-religious. IRA cadres in Ireland and Basque terrorists in Spain and France are Christian terrorists. The Tamil tigers in Sri Lanka are Hindu terrorists who invented suicide bombing. In the 1970s and 1980s, the JVP in Sri Lanka represented Buddhism. The Aum Shinrikyo killed thousands with nerve gas in Tokyo. Maoists in Nepal represent secular terrorism. So do Indian Maoists who operate in 162 out of 602districts. Islamic terrorists have plenty of company. In the US itself, the Unabomber Kaczynski maimed and killed peopled for 18 years before being caught. The Oklahoma bombers killed 168 people in 1995. After 9/11, envelopes with anthrax were sent to the capitol and other places, causing panic in Washington. Deadly explosives like RDX are available globally through sophisticated black markets, sometimes through the internet. So are Assault rifles, grenades and rockets. Cell phones provide communications that only the most sophisticated armies once had. Throw-away cell phones and changing e-mail address provide enough anonymity to foil the most sophisticated, Powerful intelligence agencies. To change things there should be understanding between people and the willingness to rise against this form of corruptive disaster. Corruption is another cause for all the terrorist activities. The future looks grim. With advancing technology, small groups will become even more powerful, and the state will become even less capable of stopping them. The state will probably respond by acquiring draconian powers and crushing civil liberties.