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Week 5: Terrorism

Why is it that terrorism is a daily reminder of how this world requires many more help than we thought it needed?. Terrorism is a complex term and derives from different meanings as well as different histories. Snow defines terrorism as, “the commission of atrocious acts against a target population normally to gain compliance with some demands the terrorists insist upon.” (Snow, 2014) When it comes to terrorism, the attacks of September 11, 2001 instantly come to mind due to the fact that it shares three common points of reference author Donald Snow explains which are: terrorist acts, terrorist targets, and terrorist purposes. Terrorism is that term that makes human beings cringe due to the severity of their actions as well as plots. The term has been popularized since the French Revolution until this day of age. Many of the attacks terrorists perform are acts that uniformly illegal and serves its general purpose, which is to “terror” others. Dealing with terrorism is both physically and intellectually difficult and one of the challenges America faces today is diminishing the acts of terrorism from being performed in our country from other well-known terrorist groups (i.e., Al Qaeda, ISIS).

In the article provided below, it speaks about the United Nations and Security Council condemning the terrorist attack that had took place on Thursday in Saudi Arabia, which resulted in the death of at least a dozen people, for which ISIL has claimed responsibility for. ISIL, is an acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which appears to be similar to ISIS.   The members of the UN are trying to figure out ways to stop the terrorizing and severe acts of terrorism, ISIL has been doing this past year. The article goes on to explain the UN emphasizedthat such “continued acts of barbarism perpetrated by ISIL do not intimidate them, but instead it stifles their resolve to counter ISIL and other terrorist groups. In essence, terrorism is a daily reminder of how much growth many countries need. It is hard trying to define terrorism because it consists of multiple components, origins, etc. In the end, the truth about terrorism is that it needs be removed for the betterment of a country.

                                                        Works Cited

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=51579#.VceSf_lVikp

As stated in Donald Snow's "Cases in International Relations," terrorism is defined as "the commission of atrocious acts against a target population normally to gain compliance with some demands the terrorists insist upon (312)." To deal with terrorism, particularly after the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. declared a "global war on terrorism" (GWOT) (Snow 320). Around that time, we were worried about Al Qaeda and the Taliban. However, today, there is a new threat that has emerged by the name of ISIS. ISIS is also known as Islamic State, ISOL, Daesh. ISIS differs from Al-Qaeda because unlike them it wants more than to strike the West, rather, it wants to construct a state with strict Islamic law and beliefs (Films on Demand).

An article by the New York Times published on August 4th, 2015 describes the state of American officials who are split on which terror threat is at the top of their list. Islamic State is said to cause more immediate danger, but Al Qaeda forces in Yemen and Syria have been causing trouble there. It is important that officials come to a consensus on which threat is at the top of their list because this will decide how counterterrorism funds are allocated. Currently, the White House is leaning towards Islamic State as the biggest threat. Approximately 3,400 American troops are aiding in the fight against ISIS in Iraq, and 9,800 in Afghanistan are assisting in combatting the remainder of Al Qaeda and Taliban forces.

Sources

Snow, Donald M. Cases in International Relations. Sixth ed. Boston: Pearson Long-man, 2012. Print.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/05/world/middleeast/isis-or-al-qaeda-american-officials-split-over-biggest-threat.html?_r=0

This article caught my attention because in the movie for this week it was stated that Turkey was looking the other way while ISIS smuggled oil. This article, however, clearly shows Turkey going against ISIS. It’s important to note the date of both events.