Terrorism

Terrorism...This is a very common word in today's society. What does it mean? Or more importantly how do "we" prevent it and if necessary combat it? The word most commonly used to explain this is counter terrorism, but is also known as anti-terrorism. The military is a great force in combating terrorism with specialist groups in nearly each branch of the armed forces. Prior to the September 11 attacks the United States Armed Forces worked hand in hand with NATO and the United Nations combating terror. However after these attacks, the United States Military has become a widely utilized entity on fighting terrorism.

Before even discussing anything about terrorism you have to have a broad understand of what it is. The definition of terrorism is very complex, mostly because there is no real definition. According to Dr. Groskin, terrorism is "the use or threat of using violence and force to achieve political objectives using methods which represent violations of criminal laws." He also states that it is the "motives that lie behind the acts which serve to distinguish terrorism from aberrant, seemingly irrational, mindless, senseless violence." When looking at a "terrorist" act the use of fear, demands for change, selection of victims, and how likely it is to attract attention all have to be closely examined to determine if it is truly what it seems.

Terrorist attacks can range from chemical, biological, nuclear, suicidal, kidnapping, and more. They are executed to create the attention of the media and to promote fear in a general population, as demonstrated by the attacks on September 11, 2001. What few people understand is that terrorist groups are very organized and one unit of the cell can have no idea who the members of another unit are. In other words two people can be working for the same cause, in the same organization pass each other on the street and have no idea who each other are. This is to set up a lack of information chain. One cell will only know their part. If they were to be captured they could not give information about the other cells in their organization. This is one of the reasons it is so hard to combat terrorism and why using the military is so controversial.

What is the militaries role in combating terrorism? How do you fight something with guns that is so broad and complex? It seems that the militaries current role is to capture known terrorists and to kill