Salem High School
Salem, MO

Teacher: Mr. Hendricks
Annie Graen-Wine

Terrorism

             Terrorism is the attack of innocent people, for no apparent reason, by people who can be the same or different race, religion, culture, or even sex.  These people have their own reasons for what they do, whether they are acceptable to others or not is no concern of theirs.  Most are only worried about getting what they want, when they want it.  They can have reasons like wanting prisoners freed, wanting to be set free themselves, being in love with someone who does not love them back, and even just because they do not like someone’s religious beliefs.  There are many more reasons that these people come up with, but I only listed some examples. Whatever their reasons are, we should always take terrorism very seriously and with caution. 

Throughout the years there have been many movies like Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, and many other movies.  These movies mostly show the effects of terrorism, and how the characters handle the problems.  Many problems consist of bombs or shooting in public areas, there has even been one that had a helicopter crash into a building.  All of these problems have just happened to us, but we don’t know where the person is or why he is doing it.  The only thing we have to go on is what we think they are attacking us for, but they have never actually said.  It was said in the research that a couple of years ago, the leader ordered his people to kill Americans to assure a place in heaven.  The reason that they wanted us gone was that we were not godly people, and we, instead, were just “devils ran by devils.”

This really does not help us to find a way to stop the attacks any faster.  I don’t really know of an absolute way to stop it, but maybe we should try to let these people on our news.  If we were able to do so, we may get one of them to talk about what they are doing and why they are doing it.  There are also thoughts that maybe if we were to capture their leader, possibly get rid of him, and his followers, this would slow down their attacks. 

In movies like Fifth Element, once the leader was dead the others did not know how to react.  This is partly because they no longer got told what to do, but they had to think for themselves.  With the background of their religion, our terrorists would have this same problem.  All of their lives they were told what to do and not to do by their leader, and were told that they were following God's words.  If these people no longer had “God’s word,” they would have to do what they thought was the right thing to do.  This way, the people who still attacked cannot say that God told them to.  The terrorists would have to deal with their punishments on their own conscience.  I don’t believe that they would all keep attacking, due to the fact that their leader would not be there to tell them that if they do it they would go to heaven.  The terrorists that are left will be able to think about whether they would die for someone who is not there.  They would have to depend on each other for their new commands.  Families may actually have a longer relationship with their loved ones.

Whether or not this plan would actually work is not known, simply because we have never tried it.  All of the wars that we were ever in, we gave the leader a chance to give up and be forgiven.  If Hitler had lived, would he have given up?  I highly doubt it.  He would never have given up if he would have lived.  Sadaam only gave up because he was surrounded with nowhere to go, but if you ask a lot of people, he is helping the terrorists around the world today.  Our government should find something to do about the big leaders that attack all over the world, but instead they just sit back and send in more troops to die.

Our way of dealing with terrorism is completely ridiculous.  In life, we never really have a chance to fight how we feel necessary.  We also have those many people who like to criticize the way that everything is handled.  For instance, we are being bombed by an organization that has killed many innocent citizens.  The families suffer a lot of pain, but others don’t go through any problems the entire time.  When it comes to us getting back at them by bombing or shooting, those people who have not lost anyone believe that it would do no good. Then, when they have a family member killed by the same group or person, they ask why we didn’t do something when it first started.  There are also people that see the U.S. fighting as sinking to the terrorists’ level, but when they suffer a loss, they want to kill the person that did it.  People in our society do not make much sense to me.  There are people who think that terrorism only happens during peacetime.  Well, I think it can happen anywhere.  During wars, in small cities, other countries, even when we attack ourselves, I believe that it should be considered terrorism.  If we are expected to punish our own people for the terror that they cause, why do our people not expect us to punish other countries for the same thing.  Actually, our own citizens have not caused as much damage as the terrorists. 

Terrorism is a very scary thing and should be handled very carefully.  Even though we are still moving along successfully, we should seriously consider the possibilities of another attack and what we should do if it were to happen.  I am pretty sure that when more people lose family members due to the terrorists, those people will be begging to have the U.S. government to do something to stop it.  Who knows, maybe next time the terrorists won’t be so worried about the big buildings, and instead will go for schools, malls, airports, and small things that effect more of the population than just business officials.

Questions Re: Terrorism Required Reading

Q1- Why, in your opinion, was the United States attacked?
            I think that we were attacked partially because of religious beliefs and partially because of anger toward us.  We are not following the same religion as the Taliban, and the Taliban was not able to take over the Muslims due to our interference. 

Q2- Why is the first question so important to resolve and agree upon?
            The first question is important because nobody knows exactly why they attacked, but we all have ideas.  Once we can all figure out why and have one reason, we will be able to fight a little better for our purposes.

Q3- What action or inaction by the United States and its allies, in the author’s opinion, increased the likelihood of chemical and biological attacks?
            The author believes that our bombs that we dropped on these countries in the 80s could have effected what they are doing now.  If we had not interfered before they may not have attacked us now.

Q4- Why does the author believe the United States is a popular target for terrorists?
            The U.S. is hated all around the world for different reasons, and this would give many terrorists good reason to target us.  The reason the author believes we are being attacked is because of our religious beliefs.

Q5- What motivates terrorists, in the author’s opinion?
            The author believes that the motivation of the terrorists comes from their religious leader.  Most are told that if they kill Americans, because we have sinned more than anyone, that they will have an automatic right to heaven, or whatever they refer to it as.

Q6- What reasons does the author give for the intense hatred of the United States by people like Osama bin Ladn?
             The author says that people like bin Ladn are only after the government, because they believe that the only right government is a caliphate.  Since we do not have this kind of government we are not right.

Q7- How does rule by divine right preclude the reasoned debate that occurs naturally in a democracy?
            Ruling by divine right eliminates debate and consideration of human rights.  With a democracy it is all a debate, and has a lot to do with human rights.

Q8- What evidence does the author offer that the terrorism visited upon the United States on September 11, 2001 was based on religious rather than political fanaticism?
            The terrorists have given no demands.  They also tell their people that once they die for the “cause” they will be glorified to all people. He also says that the attacks look like a parallel to dark days of the Inquisition, which was in the name of religious fanaticism.

Q9- What is a fatwah?
            A fatwah is a religious order, making it the holy duty of Muslims to kill American civilians.

Q10- Why does the author think new attacks are likely and how does he/she suggest we stop them?
            The author believes there will be new attacks because we are not Muslim.  The only way he/she feels we can stop it is by becoming a Muslim state and putting an Ayatollah as the head of it.  We could also end it by getting rid of all of those people who have made it their oath to kill us until we are all gone.

Q11- Why does the author claim that declaring war is futile? What two historical examples does he/she give to back up this claim?
            The terrorists are not going to stop until they are gone or we are gone.  The author uses the Inquisition and Vietnam as examples of historical issues.

Q12- Complete this sentence using the author’s words: “A declaration of war implies . . .
            . . . a conflict that lasts for a duration of time in which one side eventually gives up or capitulates and the other side wins.
Q13- What does the author suggest we do?
            The author believes we should defend ourselves.  We may not be the greatest people, we may not have the best country, but we do have the right to defend ourselves and our freedoms’.

Q14- Explain the significance of the Coventry story.
             The Coventry story was added to show how it would work if the government knew about the coming attack, but couldn’t let the attacker know that they knew.  If the attackers would have found out that they knew anything they would change their systems to something that the government was not able to understand.  This was giving the government a chance to find out things in the future.

Q15- Suppose you were a general in a combat situation. Could you “consort with evil to prevent larger evil”?   Why or why not?
            I think that I would have to.  If the only way for me to find out what the enemy was going to do was to consort with someone who knew, I would have to do so to help save my men and myself.

Q16- The author says something is un-American. What is it? Do you think the author is correct? Please write out your own definition of un-American. 
             The author says that taking out our anger on citizens just because they are from the same religion and country because we can’t find the actual villains is un-American.  I completely agree that we should not go against the people, but wait until we have the actual terrorists. To me, un-American means that we go against all the things that we say we stand for.  For instance, the right to live freely without criticism.  If we take it out on them, we are criticizing the way they live and where they live or lived.

Q17- Do you agree that terrorism must be defined adequately in order to be stopped? 
            I do agree that terrorism must be defined adequately, to be stopped.  In order to figure out how to stop it and where to stop it you have to know why and where it began.  You must also figure out how exactly to handle the situation.

Q18- How important do you think it is for you to research, discuss and consider the definition of terrorism? Are you willing to spend the time it takes to give your definition your very best effort? Why or why not?
            It is very important that you do research and discuss the definition of terrorism.  To define it would take a long period of time due to everyone having different thoughts on what terrorism really is.  I would not be able to give my definition because with my definition you would have to sit down and discuss the parts that you found either wrong or just missing something.  Not everyone will agree on exactly the same definition.

Q19- Were you able to define terrorism in your essay without admitting that the United States has been guilty of terrorist acts?
           No, the United States has committed terrorist acts against itself.

Q20- Are you optimistic about the future? Will you pledge to do your part in pursuing mutual understanding? Why or why not?
          I am optimistic, but I wouldn’t be able to help in pursuing mutual understanding.  I am not old enough, nor am I able to talk to anybody that would be able to help in the feud.  There is not much a person like me can do.

Back