Bullecer 1

Daniel Bullecer

Dr. Santosh Khadka

English 113B

3 November 2019

The Threat of Terrorism at Home and Abroad

Imagine you are sitting in your car on the third level of the B3 parking structure, and a

van containing explosives pulls into the first level. Moments later, the driver of the vehicle

detonates multiple explosives, instantly destroying the garage and every person inside the

structure. Due to this horrendous act of premeditated violence, you are now a victim of terrorism

and a statistic in America’s ceaseless war on terror. According to Haley Britzky and Zachary

Basu of Axios Media, “there were more than 10,000 terrorist attacks worldwide last year - five

times as many as there were the year of the September 11 attacks, the leader of a new

congressionally mandated task force on extremism told reporters” (Britzky). This is a staggering

number of senseless attacks, and currently, there appears to be no end in sight. Today, America is

under assault from within and without; as domestic terrorism increases, federal and state law

enforcement agencies are scrambling to identify groups that may be encouraging and fostering

homegrown terrorists in order to prevent future attacks. One thing is certain, the current policies

and practices that the United States government is using to combat terrorism are not working;

new initiatives and legislation must be passed that will bolster the intelligence community’s

ability to work more effectively with one another and with other international intelligence

agencies in order to protect American citizens at home and abroad.

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Global terrorism contains violence or threatened acts from non-state actors. Domestic

terrorism includes terrorist attacks within the borders of one country. Terrorism should be

stopped because it affects our daily lives; due to fear, we have increased stress which makes us

prepare for what will come next. As stated by Robert Phelps of Correlates of Terror, “Nationalist

groups and Islamist movements, were the most common kinds of non-state actors that resorted to

terrorism between 1998 and 2007. Islamist groups do, however, appear responsible for more

facilities than any other kind of terrorist during this period” (Phelps).

02osama-bin-laden-obituary.html

This picture shows the terrorist Osama bin Laden who was building a terrorism network, with

American help. He was the biggest issue in September 11, 2001; where he sent an attack to New

York commencing destruction and killing harmless of people. It was a devastating event.
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Domestic groups such as the KKK and the Aryan Nations has caused damages within our

society which affects the lives of many people within the border. Terrorism in America are used

mostly against racial and religious minorities. The KKK “hate group” includes white nationalists

who opposed immigration and targets specifically at African Americans. According to Clint

Watts of How to Fight the New Domestic Terrorism, “Today’s white supremacist terrorists band

together online, further radicalize themselves and fire one another up in much the same manner

as thei jihadist counterparts. They pick their targets and methods and then share their manifestos,

pronouncements and even attacks, using social media platforms such as Gab and 8chan” (Watts).

Over the past few years, the terrorist groups decided to use the virtual world as their platform to

unit with themselves. No matter if they know each other or not, they communicate to prioritize

attacks on the social media world and post threats such as comments or videos to share their

manifestos.
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the-religious-roots-of-domestic-terror

This picture shows the terrorist group called the “KKK” which stands for the Klu Klux Klan,

marching in a low profile view revealing nothing but just the eyes. According to Richard J.

Payne of Global issues, “Many American terrorists subscribe to the theory of leaderless

resistance, which means that small groups of terrorists operate essentially independent of a

hierarchical organization” (Payne). These groups will not care and listen to any other rebellious

groups.

Domestic terrorism and global terrorism differ in many ways due to many different

attacks and different nationalist groups. As stated by Richard J. Payne, “Domestic terrorism

occurs within the borders of a particular country and is associated with extremist groups. Global

terrorism is partly an outgrowth of the forces of globalization, which enable the different kinds of

terrorism to spread worldwide” (Payne). Global terrorism is more likely to be a more dangerous

situation due to the fact that it affects countries and not just states. Global terrorist attacks gives a

message to the world to be feared. On the other hand, Domestic terrorism is partially a small

group and only obtain what they feel is necessary but doesn’t mind the law.

Recently, there has been a foreign terrorist attack in India killing 40 people. What

happened was that in the afternoon, there was an SUV vehicle carrying more than 350 kilogram

of explosives and suddenly rams into a convoy which was carrying over 2,500 Central Reserve

Police Force (CRPF) men on the German Kashmir Highway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kz37nP3_wY​ The video does not explain exactly why the

terrorist did such a thing, but the only information we got out from the video was that the
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terrorist was a 19 year old high school dropout who decided to join a terrorism group and then a

year later became a suicide bomber.

On the other hand, sources show that recently there has been a domestic terrorist attack at

El Paso in Texas, about twenty were killed. The situation happened at a Walmart shopping center

in El Paso, a gunman by the name Patrick Crusius, age 21, from the Dallas area starting a mass

shooting but then later on surrendered to the police force outside the store. To conclude, the

community of El Paso questioned why he had driven 9 hours to target their city. The reason for

this mass shooting by Patrick was from his hate letter explaining his thoughts on Hispanic

invasion of Texas, destruction of America, believing that the Hispanic will overtake the

government, and the fears of race mixing and suggest segregation as his solution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRmqgYNTtlQ​ This attack not only affected the city, but

also to the whole United States. The whole act by the shooter was based on simple racism and

anger towards Hispanic. Which is a terrifying situation, because Hispanics are spread throughout

the United States and could never know when another terrorist like Patrick who has the towards

Hispanics will show up.

To include, I had an interview with someone concerning about Terrorism; gave that

person questions about terrorism and politley answered. I asked, “How do you define terrorism?”

They responded, ”terrorism is the act of using fear in order to destroy the foundation of a

society.” There are many aspects of terrorism which makes it difficult for people to define

terrorism. Another question I asked, “In your opinion, how do domestic terrorism and global

terrorism differ?” Their response, “ Domestic Terrorism is trying to change its domestic policies

and global terrorism is trying to change their foreign policies.” Not only that but domestic
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terrorism is targeted by extremist groups within the borders of specific countries, and global

terrorism is an act of different terrorism attacks worldwide with different forces around the

world. Lastly, the last question I asked was, “Do you believe global terrorism can be stopped? If

so, explain.” They responded with, “No because there’s too many people with too many factions,

there will always be conflict.” Which makes me think a lot, Terrorism is inevitable due to too

many people living on this planet with different beliefs. Conflict is what makes us grow. Many

people I spoke to told me that they do not approve of any terrorism at all whatsoever. Ever since

the incident on September 11, many have feared what will come next. I think many Americans

are more fearful towards any sort of terrorism since years ago when the war on terror began

because many attacks have still continued worldwide and won’t stop spreading. There are too

many people and with different beliefs and will use the force of killing others to resolve.

America is under assault from within and without; as domestic terrorism increases,

federal and state law enforcement agencies are scrambling to identify groups that may be

encouraging and fostering homegrown terrorists in order to prevent future attacks. One thing is

certain, the current policies and practices that the United States government is using to combat

terrorism are not working; new initiatives and legislation must be passed that will support the

intelligence community’s ability to work more effectively with one another and with other

international intelligence agencies in order to protect American citizens at home and abroad. The

future outlook of this crisis looks like there will be more terrorists attacks, unless solved. Unless

new laws are passed not just within the United States, but to other countries as well, terrorism

can at least be avoidable. Not only for it to be avoidable, but we can sure be prepared for more

attacks of terrorism. So what… why should people care about this crisis… People should care
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about this crisis because if it is not taken care of, more people will experience deaths and loses

and the world we know will create chaos that will be too late to stop. Terrorism will always

create fear for us, which makes us vulnerable. Without new laws, immense chaos will begin. In

order for us to succeed on terrorism, we need to pass on new initiatives and legislation to support

our communities defense and internationally.

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Works Cited

Britzy, Haley. Basu Zachary. ​Global Terror Attacks have skyrocketed since 9/11.​ Axios.

September 16, 2018. Accessed on October 24, 2019.

CBC News: The National. ​El Paso Mass Shooting Deemed a Domestic Terrorism Attack.​ August

5, 2019. ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRmqgYNTtlQ​. Accessed on November 2,

2019.

J. Payne, Richard. “Global Issues.” Chapter 5 Global Terrorism. Pg: 99-121. Accessed on

October 21, 2019.

NDTV. ​40 Killed in Worst Terror Attack On Forces in Kashmir, India Condemns Pak​. February

14, 2019. ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kz37nP3_wY​. Accessed on November 2,

2019.

Phelps, Robert. Rowe, Stephen. Romano, David. ​Correlates of Terror: Trends in types of

terrorist groups and fatalities inflicted.​ Cogent Social Sciences (2019). Accessed on

October 21, 2019.

Watts, Clint.​ How to Fight the New Domestic Terrorism. 2​ 019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

Accessed on October 21, 2019.

Wexler, Stuart. ​The Religious Roots of Domestic Terror.​ ​The-religious-roots-of-domestic-terror​.

July 12, 2017. Accessed on October 21, 2019.

Zernike, Kate. T. Kaufman, Michael. ​The Most Wanted Face of Terrorism​.

02osama-bin-laden-obituary.html​. May 2, 2011. Accessed on October 21, 2019.