Terrorism is a global issue. In the last few decades, several terrorist organizations have surfaced like Al-Qaeda and Isis. They gained a substantial foothold in the Middle East in the last fifteen years implementing their own laws on innocent people, often with violence and insurgency. Countries like the United States have taken Counter-terrorism measures in order to tackle the various problems involved with terrorism to help prevent additional senseless acts of violence and destruction. This was done through either militaristic or political means such as the War in Iraq and Afghanistan and several laws passed during the Bush administration in the early 2000's.
Former President George W. Bush Jr. passed numerous policies to counter terrorist acts after the 9/11 attacks. A couple of these changes turned out to be helpful towards the cause, more often however, they violated human rights laws, proving detrimental in thwarting terrorist activities. A good instance of this was when Bush allowed degrading and painful interrogation techniques like forced nudity and waterboarding to gain answers from suspected terrorists. Waterboarding is seen as a torturous method of interrogation that frequently proves useless in gaining intel from those water boarded. Those water boarded experience great stress from feelings of constantly drowning, inducing trauma and suffering.
Bush continued to sign into effect executive orders like in 2007, that allowed government organizations like the CIA to continue carrying out harsh tactics throughout apprehension and interrogation of any suspects thought to be linked to terrorism. [footnoteRef:1] Utilization of harsh techniques such as water boarding to interrogate terrorist suspects not only gives the American government the image of being seemingly cruel, but also deters further cooperation from those they seek information from as well as increase fear and prejudice. While the public readily accepted the new changes brought by the Bush administration due to their desire to end terrorism the counter terrorist measures and the violation of human rights laws created a backlash in the Muslim world. This can be seen with the way the world saw the United States and interacted with American government officials. "Security and human rights norms usually require a balancing act for their contemporaneous application but are often considered to conflict with one another. This is the case, especially when terrorism threats lead the executive branch to temporarily suspend or reduce its human rights obligations." [footnoteRef:2] [1: S. Ahmed, "The 'Emotionalization of The "War On Terror": Counter-Terrorism, Fear, Risk, Insecurity And Helplessness," Criminology and Criminal Justice 15, no. 5 (2015): 545-560.] [2: Myriam Feinberg, "International Counterterrorism -- National Security And Human Rights: Conflicts Of Norms Or Checks And Balances?," The International Journal of Human Rights 19, no. 4 (2015): 388-407.]
Beginning in 2002, the Bush Administration implemented an expansion to what is currently termed extraordinary rendition. Essentially, it permitted CIA agents to kidnap and transport suspected individuals of terrorism to nations like Egypt and Afghanistan for interrogation. Special facilities called "black sites" were secret prisons that existed and operated during this time. Suspects were tortured, attacked, and killed. Although terrorism is an ongoing problem that requires intervention to help avert the killing of innocent lives and disruption of society, it should not be done so in a way that creates further destruction and chaos. Not all apprehended suspects were guilty of terrorist activity and the degree of abuse suffered by some of these suspects demonstrates the requirement of counter terrorist measures to contain preservation of human rights.
By generating fear and hatred within the Muslim population and creating a negative image of the United States on foreign land, it makes those that otherwise would have never considered terrorist involvement to pursue it in order to destroy the ones they deem monstrous. By becoming the very monsters they feared, the United States government created severe backlash and an environment that would breed one of the worse terrorist organizations to date, Isis. Isis only became a threat after the United States began warring in Iraq and Afghanistan. Before then terrorist organizations barely had a foothold in those countries.
The wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq created public outcry amongst the native population as well as created a huge financial crisis in America. Many considered the war on terror as necessary after the 9/11 attacks in order to neutralize and control terrorist threats on a global level. However, it left a population within the countries attacked, with heavy losses, repeated human rights violations, and an upsurge in terrorist activity and insurgency. One interesting fact about Isis is one of the leaders is an Iraqi going by the name of Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali Muhammad al-Badri al-Samarrai. Perhaps he witnessed the way the United States...
Whether it is a matter of terrorism as revealed by the 9/11 attacks or that of the Tamil Tigers, the question remains on the legitimacy of the claims the groups are making. On the one hand, there is the matter of religious claims, which are common depending on the type of religion, and with which its adepts can identify, and on the other there are the ethnic groups, which
As we know from the evolution of modern history, the Soviet Union and the countries of the Eastern block generally backed up the Arab countries, mainly because their actions were directed towards the Untied States and Israel, natural enemies for the Soviets. However, strangely enough, international politics meant that the United States often found themselves backing Iraq, at least during the 80s and the war with Iran. This happened because
Terrorism The Schwartz, Dunkel & Waterman (2009) identity theory model of terrorism has merits. However, it also presents problems that can hinder understanding of the terrorism phenomenon. The primary problem with Schwartz, Dunkel & Waterman's (2009) assessment of terrorism as a function of personal, social, and cultural identity variables is that the variables used to predict terrorism also exist in a non-terrorist framework. Collectivist societies often promote strong in-group/out-group binaries, and
Islamic Terrorism: The Radicalization of Religion Abstract This essay�focuses on radical Islamic terrorism, from its roots in the Shia rebellion that led to the Iranian Revolution to the modern day terrorist group Daesh/ISIL/ISIS/IS.� It discusses how 9-11 introduced many Westerners to the idea of radical Islamic terrorism and the self-proclaimed holy warriors who carry out these acts as a form of jihad.� In order to help explain modern terrorism, the paper discusses
Terrorism How have worries over WMD terror attacks distorted a balanced approach to policy on terrorism? Intelligence failures led to the presumption that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (Jervis).[footnoteRef:1] The presumption was rooted in a widespread policy playing upon mortal fears, rather than on reason. "Although administration officials exaggerated the danger that Saddam posed, they also revealed their true fears when they talked about the possibility that he could use WMD
Terrorism refers to threats, violence, bombings, etc. Terrorism is known to have a long history, but even today, the reason behind this terror by the super powers and the government remains explicit. The acts of terror are very common these days and could be found in current political and social environment. A part of terror is still confused when it is applied in the actual present world (Robb, 2007). Where the
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