Salem High School
                  Salem, MO

            Teacher: Mr. Hendricks
                    Eli Connel

Terrorisms is when a group of people or a person takes up an attack against another party in order to get some type of result from their attacks.  Basically terrorism is the same thing as what any war or battle is.  The dictionary says that it is the act of causing immense fear in an enemy for a political or organizational result by war like actions. 

            Terrorism is the action of war with out the declaration of it.  It is very similar to war in many aspects.  Terrorism is when you have one party being attacked by another, and when the party being attacked is totally unprepared in some instances.  Terrorism is an extremely hard item to define, and even harder to deal with.  In my opinion terrorism has many faces in different situations.  I am sure that if you ask the terrorists of 9-11-01 they would feel that their actions are not terrorism but rather a holy war.  You ask any American and they would say that it was definitely a terrorist attack.  This shows that the same thing can become two totally different things when seen from different points of view.  

            This is why you cannot give an accurate description that covers all of the attacks that could be considered terrorism.  In order to stop the terrorists of 9-11 from attacking the U.S. again and other countries we must come to gather, find out exactly what they are after, and insure the protection of our people. 

            In order for us to come together we must set aside differences and be able to reason with each other.  We also must have common goals.  I feel that all of the people that are possible targets should express their ideas and their feelings.  All though we shouldn’t dwell on our feelings, because no matter how much we can’t believe that it happened we must face the facts, it did, so what are we going to do about it.  I know that with combined efforts we will be more that able to put a stop to the attacks and to be able to gain some justice for the victims of 9-11.

            Just like with any thing else in order to solve any problem we must know what is causing it.  So we need to know what the terrorists are after.  There has to be a reason for them doing this.  There is no way that all of the individuals involved with their organization are all just a sick bunch of people that just want to kill other people.  They have to have a reason.  What is it?  If Bin Ladin is after world domination then he should know that it isn’t going happen.  If he wants every one in the world to worship Alla then that isn’t going to happen either. I am firm in my religion and will not turn from it for any thing, weather it’s all the money in the world, or world power, or even the life of a loved one.  In my life Jesus Christ comes first.  I feel that God is the answer to absolutely every problem that there is.  You are entitled to your own opinion, but that is firmly and steadfastly mine.  I will die before I would ever change my beliefs and cooperate with any one that wants me to profess otherwise.  If he wants to get even with America for something that we did in the past to him or to his people then he is going about it the wrong way, and we as a country will not accept a loss and we will not lie down for his wicked and ungodly ways.  We will instead stand up for ourselves and utterly destroy his chances for getting even.  We are not a country that will just stand there and take it.  We will fight, and we will win. 

            In order to protect our people we must do the above along with a few other things.  Some of the things that we must do are take extreme safety precautions.  This is just an idea but it might work, I don’t know because I do not work for and airline company or any type of transportation company.  Here are my suggestions; before any one takes any type of commercial travel they should have to send in any thing that they are going to take with them to the transport company at least a day in advance.  Then all of the stuff that they take with them should be checked thoroughly and locked away.  Absolutely no carry on.  All clothing should be removed and the transport company should provide special suits to the passengers.  The clothing should be put in lockers and then after the travel is over returned to the passenger.  The lockers could be placed under the seats.  This would not only help to hinder terrorism, but also drug trafficking. I realize that this would take a lot of money to do and that there might be a serious problem with lost baggage, but I feel that it would be better to be safe and to live to see the next day than to not, because some crazy person decided to hijack the vehicle or something.  It would be a huge hassle but it would be well worth the lives of 50,000 people.  Another possible solution would be sedating all passengers; you would have to do this with the above applications though be cause a terrorist might take something to counteract the medicine.  You could lock people in place with their seat belts, and if they have to use the restroom or something then they could be escorted.  A computer could operate the seatbelt locks, and on the seatbelts them selves there would be to way to manually access the locks.  If one gets stuck then a stewardess would have to cut the seat belts off.  Or you could have seatbelts like the ones on the Ninja at Six-Flags.  Metal bars that are operated by computer.  I don’t see someone sneaking a high enough power welder or plasma cutter on to the vehicle to cut through them.  These are all just ideas, and there are probably many legitimate reasons not to follow them.  Money would play a huge aspect in the application of these ideas.  They probably wouldn’t be as comfortable as one might like.  People couldn’t carry on their laptops and conduct business in the vehicle either.  Maybe it wouldn’t have to be so strict but I do feel that these are good ideas.  I thought of them. 

battle against terrorism.

Questions

           Q1- Why, in your opinion, was the United States attacked?

We were attacked because we are a dominate world power and they feel that we are responsible for their current situation.

            Q2- Why is the first question so important to resolve and agree upon?

This question is important to agree on because if we know why we were attacked then we can do some thing to avoid being attacked again.

          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?

Our inaction of inspecting the suspected Iraqi weapons manufacturing facilities.

           Q4- Why does the author believe the United States is a popular target for terrorists?

We are a popular target for the terrorist groups because we are the most powerful and wealthy nation in the world.  The terrorist people come from poor countries and they seem to be Muslim.  We are not led by a Muslim leader and so we appear to them to be the spawn of Satan.

            Q5- What motivates terrorists, in the author’s opinion?

The fact that we are wealthy and that they aren’t.

           Q6- What reasons does the author give for the intense hatred of the United States by people like Osama bin Ladn?

He says that since we are wealthy Christian people and not poor Muslims that Muslims think we are evil and led by Satan.

          Q7- How does rule by divine right preclude the reasoned debate that occurs naturally in a democracy?

It doesn’t in actuality because there are so many different religions and in my opinion the Muslim religion isn’t the divine one.

          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?

He states all of our nations sins against the rest of the world and he notes that weather or not we had committed them would not have mattered.  The terrorist still would have attacked us because they are doing it to cause what is in their opinion, a satanic country led by satanic people, to fall.

          Q9- What is a fatwah?

A fatwah is an explicit religious order.

Q10- Why does the author think new attacks are likely and how does he/she suggest we stop them?

He thinks that new attacks are likely because he believes that the problem is not political and is religious.  Therefore the people of this religion will not stop until they feel that the evil which is the U.S. (their opinion) is destroyed. 
  
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 situation that a war would happen in would be similar to the Persian Gulf and Vietnam.  We faired poorly in both incidences.

Q12- Complete this sentence using the author’s words: “A declaration of war implies . . .

a conflict of limited duration in which one side eventually surrenders of capitulates and the other side wins.

Q13- What does the author suggest we do?

He/she suggests that we infiltrate their camps with our intelligence agencies and to befriend the Muslims that are not members of the taliban.

Q14- Explain the significance of the Coventry story.

The author is hoping that the reason that the CIA didn’t appear to know any thing about the planning of Sep.11 is that they are really quite aware of it and have agents in place to stop any greater threats that the Taliban may impose on us.

Q15- Suppose you were a general in a combat situation. Could you “consort with evil to prevent larger evil”?   Why or why not?

Yes I would because I am aware that this would in the long run be better for my people.

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 it would be un-American to kill people that live in the same country as the terrorists and that have the same religion but don’t have any thing to do with the terrorists attacks.  I feel that the author is correct in feeling this way but if in order to save our county and our people we have to kill them anyway then so be it.  Un American is where an action that takes place doesn’t benefit the nation as a whole or represent what we the American people are all about. 

Q17- Do you agree that terrorism must be defined adequately in order to be stopped? 
I think that it would help in seeing how to stop it because you could gain a better understanding of what the terrorists are after and what the intend to gain by attacking, so you could foresee what possible actions they might take in order to obtain what they are after.

I think that it would help in seeing how to stop it because you could gain a better understanding of what the terrorists are after and what the intend to gain by attacking, so you could foresee what possible actions they might take in order to obtain what they are after.

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?

I think that it is fairly important because it may help the country as a whole to see what the terrorists are after and how to stop them but I don’t know as to weather or not my definition would be adequate enough to help much.

Q19- Were you able to define terrorism in your essay without admitting that the United States has been guilty of terrorist acts?

Q20- Are you optimistic about the future? Will you pledge to do your part in pursuing mutual understanding? Why or why not?

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