Terrorism: Fighting for Peace essay

In the meantime, very often deterrence and social mistrust are only planted by terrorists, and this is the state that makes them grow and flourish. Here it seems reasonable to speak of two problems. The first is all the informational noise provoked by the authorities which is negatively affecting the nation. This problem refers to psychological damage often associated with massive economic damage. It has been found that “intense media coverage by itself can have some damaging impact with some adults and children appearing to suffer serious psychological problems as a result of long exposure to media coverage of terrorist attacks” (Juergensmeyer 2000, p. 79). For that reason media become approached as an extreme vector of fear in the democratic state. In the United States attention paid to the threat of terrorism is absolutely incongruent with real actions of terrorists on the territory of the country.

The second is the so called state terrorism. “While a democratic nation espousing civil liberties may claim a sense of higher moral ground than other regimes, an act of terrorism within such a state may cause a dilemma: whether to maintain its civil liberties and thus risk being perceived as ineffective in dealing with the problem; or alternatively to restrict its civil liberties and thus risk delegitimizing its claim of supporting civil liberties,” Alexander (1991, p. 171) notes. True democracy cannot exist without the ideals of unity and diversity, but the way terrorism if fought against in the United States shows how ideals are not able to leave the sphere of ephemeral images and words. To protect the society on the whole, it is often done at the cost of individual liberties and through the right for privacy violation. Aiming at keeping perpetrators away from the national values, the authorities tend to inflict even more catastrophic damage on the people than terrorists do themselves. The United States have worked out National Strategy for Combating Terrorism to integrate operational and intelligence efforts for detecting, disrupting and interdicting terror implements (Perdue 1989, p. 301). This strategy includes determination of terrorists’ intentions and plans; denying them access to important data; and so on. But while trying to take these measures, it is certainly difficult to know who terrorists are. Therefore, conditions become tighter for all the inhabitants and especially immigrants. Student exchange programs as well as worksite enforcement programs become more complicated to participate in. Travel and document security and increased information sharing often verge on spying spread throughout the country. “We are advancing effective democracy as the antidote to the ideology of our terrorist enemies and the long-term solution for winning the War on Terror,” they tend to declare (Taylor 2006, 197). But under the disguise of democracy private life becomes a cost for overall community welfare. Those who lead this absurd ”˜war on terror’ insist they preserve freedom of religion and thought, but in combating violent Islamic radicalization, for instance, they try to instill their own national values into the representatives of Islamic community. Of course, they are often targeted by homegrown extremism and require assistance, but if to examine the situation carefully, it will become clear that again not the interests of minorities are defended, but the welfare of majority is cared about. American openness and economic stability thus arise from promotion of “the values of citizenship, democracy, integration, religious tolerance, and the protection of civil rights, as well as increase cooperation among Tribal, State, and Federal prison officials and Muslim communities to counter radicalization in prisons” (Odom 2007, 410). This is how state terrorism is implemented through legal tools.

Conclusions

To sum up, there is no problem that cannot be solved, but the first step to solution is always to its roots. Talking about terrorist philosophy, it is worthy to remember that it is the sense of integrity, devotion to common purpose and common outrage sometimes that make people unite their effort whatever the goal. The problem, however, is that the nation is terrorized by its state sometimes even more intensely than by the out-of-law extremists. The state attacks the civilian population by constant information noise, which makes up a continuous threat because of frequent warnings and public announcements. What is more, the methods applied by the state for tracking suspicious behavior, actions and people borders on the threat to civil liberties. All these tools are still completely lawful, but forecasts are not satisfactory. A sound balance is to be found. After all, integrity and honesty are needed in both words and actions to make the world peaceful and free of superstitions and hypocrisy.