Trevor Elliott

02/21/2005
POSC 211A
Terrorism Report
What is Terrorism?

The people of this world all view terrorism differently. Even here in our own

country everyone differs on the meaning of terrorism. The UN defines terrorism as,

“[a] criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general

public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any

circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical,

ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other nature that may be invoked to justify

them. (GA Res. 51/210 Measures to eliminate international terrorism)”1 The

Whitehouse define terrorism as, “…the unlawful use of force or violence against

persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or

any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”2 Next we have

Roskin; he defines terrorism as, “political use of violence to weaken a hated

authority.”3 Simple definitions that are all similar, yet different.

Each has it’s own worth to a different person and each can be taken

differently than the others.

1
Schaechter, Iris. http://www.unodc.org/unodc/terrorism_definitions.html 2000
2
Terrorism Research Center. http://www.terrorism.com/modules.php ©2004
3
Roskin, Michael. IR The New World of International Relations. (Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2005)
240

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Domestic Terrorism

The definition of terrorism is close to defining other types of terrorism like

domestic terrorism which is, “…[The] unlawful use of force or violence, committed

by a group(s) of two or more individuals, against persons or property to intimidate

or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in

furtherance of political or social objectives.”4 Domestic terrorism has become a

problem in America, the land of the free. The people that would go to the lengths of

diminishing our own homeland are wrong. The key issues behind domestic terrorism

vary from new trends in global and domestic terrorism to analysis of terrorist group

capabilities and targeting strategies. There are many participants in domestic

terrorism, but none are known more than the terrorists of the Middle East.

International Terrorism

Currently there’s a war going on in Iraq between Iraqi terrorists and the U.S.

military forces. This war has costs and/or benefits that can be interpreted differently

by lots of different people. The White House and the Pentagon assess the

cost/benefits that the $60+ million guess of a cost of the war was worth it, when

most see that as nothing more than the initial down payment on the war. We will

gain another country as an ally that we will pull a lot of strings in; we got rid of one

4
FBI (http://www.closeup.org/terror.htm 2004)

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Terrorism Report
of the worst dictators in the world, and were able to stop the threats of weapons of

mass destruction.

Dr. Pat Robertson, founder of Christian Coalition, has another assessment of

the war. He thinks of it as a fool’s mistake. He says he told Bush that he’d better

prep Americans for casualties and Bush told him there won’t be any casualties.

Robertson said this about Bush, “[He, Bush, is] the most self-assured man I've ever

met in my life.”5

Senator Robert Byrd I think has some of the most interesting things in

regards to the Iraqi war. Byrd says, “Mr. President, the Emperor has no clothes.

This entire adventure in Iraq has been based on propaganda and manipulation.

Eighty-seven billion dollars is too much to pay for the continuation of a war based

on falsehoods.”6 This is a direct quote from a speech Byrd gave. This is a major

example of how much he just dislikes Bush’s idea of war in Iraq. He says the

emperor has no clothes, which I take is they’re caught with their pants downs and

their leader is gone, meaning we’re accomplishing something for which we

originally setout to do in Iraq. He also adds more comments in this speech of his, he

goes on to talk even more of how Bush is our downfall of our government. He

finishes his speech with more anti-Bush cynicism by reading a quote from the book

5
http://www.robertsilvey.com/notes/death_in_iraq/
6
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/Remarks_by_US_101703.htm/

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Terrorism Report
Nuremberg Diaries, written by G.M. Gilbert, in which the author interviews

Hermann Goering.

‘We got around to the subject of war again and I said that,

contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people

are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and

destruction.

‘. . . But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who

determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag

the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist

dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.’

‘There is one difference,’ I pointed out. ‘In a democracy the

people have some say in the matter through their elected

representatives and in the United States only Congress can

declare wars.’

‘Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the

people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.

That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being

attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and

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Terrorism Report
exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any

country.’ 6

Dr. Pat Buchanan is also outspoken on the subject of the Iraq war. He

challenges Bush’s motive sand what he plans to do with our other international

relations in that area, such as Israel. Buchanan is persistent on the fact that war is not

the right means to go and that are motives are askew and not right. The oil is one of

the ideas he believes Bush is doing this for and believes it’s a personal vendetta

against Hussein.

Now the fact that we’re fighting in an Arab region, we can’t leave out the

Arab media and their views. It seems that that the Arab media is stuck in between

assessing and not assessing the effects, costs, and benefits of the war. Though they

do tell of how they are glad we are winning, yet are also sad and grieving for those

who died on either side, mainly civilians who have grieving families somewhere.

The British media on the other hand, think that we went to war for our own

petty causes and our men are being killed at our fault at an alarming escalating rate.

British media also assesses that the U.S. should leave Iraq and let it fix its own

problems and that the U.S. shouldn’t have gone in to begin with. The faults and

debts the U.S. is in is its own fault and should not have disobeyed the U.N. and gone

into Iraq alone.

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Terrorism Report
Videos-IR Theory and American Foreign Policy

The videos on IR theory and the U.S. foreign policy were of good use to a

class. They go and explain a bunch of different aspects to international relations and

the theories surrounding it. Movies showed how real life is in action revolving

around these theories and policies.

The most intriguing video was the video talking about Service “crisis”

Response Days. That was an intriguing video to watch. The fact that there should

never be more that 10,000 service “crisis” response days in a year was a real neat

thing to learn. The video taught how one should deal with the extra days and what

all the extra responses were from. He said four key events are what triggered more

and more. The key events were, the European Détente, the war of 1973, the Vietnam

War ending and the shah ends. In efficiency to dealing with all the over load of

service “crisis” response days the number one way is to pretend it isn’t there, and

the second best way is technolize it anyway.

Through the videos we also were taught about Idealism and realism. The

idealists will do something that isn’t possible, yet they hope and believe it just might

happen and then that way they never have to make a life changing decision. Where a

realist is a person that understands the world and knows the way it works. A realist

will sacrifice the one or few to save the many or hundreds. A realist will make life

changing decisions and keep them his life and know what it means to have

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experienced the world. Those are the extremes of the two sides set in more of a

militarily situation. The dictionary classifies a realist as somebody who is sensible,

practical, and not concerned with abstract theories or idealistic views of life.7 And

the other side of the spectrum, the idealist is defined as somebody who aspires to or

lives in accordance with high standards or principles.8

7
“Realist.” Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. 2003.
8
“Idealist.” Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. 2003.

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