Essay Example on 9/11 Attacks: A World at a Standstill

Introduction

Since terrorism took place in 2001, the world order globally has changed. Anxiety, fear, repugnancy sentiments and hate are the uncertainties that dominated and took the place of people life. Since then, so many debates and discussion have emerged concerning the consequent repercussions that took place on that fatal date which made the world to be at a standstill (Schmid 90). The incidents that took place were considered the worst events ever witnessed and seen in a world that has never experienced that. The image of how two hijacked areas crushed against the Twin Towers was still and is in everyone's mind. Such a picture also created sentiments that made people feel at that time that terrorism has become part of people's lives. The essay will talk more on the contours of terrorism, understanding terrorists and the central feature of terrorism.

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Defining terrorism

The discussion on terrorism has become part of people's lives to the point that the media have participated in delivering the latest information to keep people updated and informed. One cannot just avoid it to the point that it has become a personal viewpoint and problematic concerning terrorism. Everyone in this world views terrorism as a concerning issue that has dominated and invaded since the incident of the twin towers (Schmid 93). The topic is also discussed by many and ends up gaining unprecedented dimension and importance. Since this issue is sensible, fragile and sophisticated, the concept becomes hard to solve because of many questions and concerns concerning the discourse of the terrorists and the states.

Politicians, journalists, security experts and academics use the various definition of terrorism. Some focus on terrorist organizations, while others emphasize the characteristics and motivations of terrorism and the 'modus operandi' the terrorists (Schmid 99). In Schmidt book "Political Terrorism," the authors defined terrorism in several ways by doing surveys from leading academics. From the definitions, the authors emphasized that force and violence had the highest between the discrepancy between the victims and targets in plan, organize and intentional actions of tactics and strategies that combat terrorism (Schmid n.p). The paper will also demonstrate the contours of terrorism supported by thesis and accounts from various authors. The ideas will be combined to come up with a satisfactory conclusion.

The Contours of Terrorism

According to Amitai Etzioni, terrorism is a word that does not have a specific definition. In his view, the media has played a significant role to destabilize the meaning because the television remains the central public arena that discusses and talks about the political and social life and at the same time disemboguements the definition of tourism (p.90). Many debates state that the realm of politics has a controversial and particular way of analyzing, conceptualizing and broaching terrorism. However, in Murdock's side, politicians have an idea of simplifying and limiting terrorism in the name of it's the political interest of the state.

A suitable example was the former U.S representative to the U.N, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, when she defined and identified a terrorist as an individual that tortures, kidnaps, maims and kills. Most victims of the terrorists include industrialist that go home from work, school children, diplomats and political leaders (Etzioni 94). Sometimes, due to their specific rule and special deontology of impartiality, most journalists broach and use the word terrorist during an attack. Danielle Vinson and David Paletz, define terrorism in many forms. These authors are believed to have the most prominence and renowned term of terrorism as the wage against the state (p. 124). In other words, they differentiated between sponsored terrorism against the citizens and other countries. By nature, terrorism has received negative connotations instead of a neutral term.

As far as there are many definitions, it is clear that the western society is the first ones to be influenced and dominated by the North American International Policy and North American Culture to come up with the word terrorist. Most arguments claim that the construction of that word was meant to show the reflection of the political interest of the western strategies verses the Eastern, particularly the Middle East culture (Vinson and Paletz 133). The word terrorism profoundly, undoubtedly gives negative connotation because it represents people that are people or qualify as bad people.

The standard definition of terrorism comes with many difficulties because of the concepts that develop alternative ideas such as the underground movements, commandos, and guerrilla movement to characterize and describe the activities conducted by terrorist groups (Schmid 114). Regarding the effects of terrorism, it is clear that the term poses a central dilemma because no rule can be applied in the response of the violated principles. The definition of tourism is then clear and not pacific because of certainties, questions, sentiments and uncertainties towards the meaning (Schmid 121). The best way of defining terrorism is that it's the threat of using violence to citizens or against their targets to gain political aims.

Understanding the Terrorist

Similar to Vinson and Paletz argument, for people to understand the terrorist they need to analyze the fundamental triangular connection in the strategy of the terrorist and the target set. Usually, the targets of the terrorist could be the government because they want to coerce or attacking the public by apprehending fear or interest (Wittig 147). Most terrorists look for a fundamental element that is believed to make them successful in attacking the audience. Even though television, radio and newspapers play significant roles in the terrorist's achievements, most authors argue that publicity icons the strategies of terrorists.

Undoubtedly the power of publicity in spreading and divulging their motives and causes towards the terrorist groups have been suffocated because of lack of reasons to persist and survive (Wittig 161). However, there is a question on whether terrorists use the media professionally and skillfully. Majority of researcher believe that terrorists use the media, especially the television (due to the power of image) to spread and expose their causes. Such an argument was supported by William Catton when she stated that "the activities of terrorist form a theatre for the audience to a pal" (p. 172). In short, if terrorists never accessed the media, they would no manage to reach many audiences before striking.

Violence and Terrorism

Determining what pushes people to terrorism in hard. One thing discovered is that terrorists do not volunteer as subjects that examine their activities but people that can lead to an erroneous conclusion. As many Arabs say, " one terrorist group is another freedom fighter group" (Saul 12). With such complexities, many researchers admit that terrorism is marked more by opinion and theory than science fiction information. Based on a survey done by scientists, they discovered that terrorism is viewed in terms of group and political dynamics than individual processes that have psychological principles lie the desire for personal significance and fear of death. Such information can assist in a complicated quest to prevent terrorism. The findings of the survey showed that highlighting humanity, assuaging cultural annihilation between the reality of terrorists involvement and dreams could make terrorists not to become violent (Guss 102). The notion that terrorists can be persuaded using a helping hand and peaceful dialogue is no longer the ideal but instead developing various de-radicalization programs globally.

By nature, terrorist are horrible, aggressive, cruel and inhuman, and that is why they are presupposed to be violent. Bearing this in mind, the fundamental question of acquiring the perception of terrorism shows that there is a clear motive as to why terrorist undertake and commit all atrocities through the media (Guss 111). Therefore ideas as to whether terrorists are assigned to violence are bright because their status quo is attached to destroying things and causing harm to people in a concerning manner

The Lure of Terror

For many years psychologist has been examining the individual characters of terrorists to mine for clues that could elaborate more on why they are always willing to engage in violence. Even though many researchers agree that terrorist is not pathological several things, insight them to be violent. Beyond their characteristics, psychologist learned that there must be something that triggers them. Research conducted was meant to reveal the myriad ways of how people join such groups, whether it's personal decision recruitment, and how people are influenced by terrorist leaders to adapt to specific behaviours like glorifying the suicide bomber. Such information can assist establish plausible interventions as to why people join such groups after being promised a glamourous lifestyle that will never happen.

The Terrorist Threat Construction

After the break taking incident in 2001, democracy all over the world, especially western democracies spent their energy and time on the phenomenon called the terrorism thereat. Due to their unprecedented effort, they have not managed to defeat and tackle such threats. The attack on the Pentagon and the Twin Tower marked a turning point of people lives (Hale-Ross 52). After that incident, the worldwide movement which revolted against the adverse event created hatred all over. In 2003, the world was faced by another terrible attack against Iraq. The country is believed to hide and produce highly lethal and dangerous chemical weapons. If such wars are not controlled, they could cause the third world war (Hale-Ross 57). The concern of terrorism strongly dominates today's world. However, this section will analyze how governments should treat and deal with such a phenomenon.

According to Boulden, the paradox that follows the terrorism acts non-state or individual terrorism is seen as evil and legitimately accepted (p. 505). In short, terrorism was a word created by the western nations to confront and challenge the cultural power of various regions globally. A few people argue that instead of terrorism to be considered as a phenomenon worth to be analyzed, the term should be defined based on the reactive relationship of counterterrorism. Such a theory represents a reflection naturally caused by the government on victims that have terrorist plans (Boulden 507). In short, counterterrorism is not by the reaction but instead invested from terrorism.

Conclusion

The word terrorism pauses many uncertainties, questions and a series of complications. The evil act is no longer a problem for specified nations but an international challenge. More than ever, the terrorist organizations perpetrate attacks in many countries and attack victims of different nationalities, headquarters, offices and training camps. Most terrorist organizations receive indirect and direct assistance form various states that either support their communities or finance their agendas.

As defined, in this mass-communication and telecommunication era, the television has facilitated in manipulating peoples opinions and minds through delivering of evil information. On the other hand, the western democratic governments have also made people believe that there are two opposite worlds, realities and dimensions that represent the right side, good side and blue side. Others describe the evil side and the dark side. The western government has also made people believe that terrorists are constant threats that should not be pursued. In doing so, they continue deepening and darkening the negative connotation of the terms terrorism...