An Explanation Of Terrorism Essay Research Paper

An Explanation Of Terrorism Essay, Research Paper An Explanation of Terrorism After browsing through Stephen E. Atkins book Terrorism, I soon learned many interesting things regarding the history of terrorism. It seems this form of protest has been around since Biblical times. Also, the main goal of a terrorist is not to do damage to one peticular person or place, but to gain publicity for an idea they support. (page 1) Evidence of this can be found by looking at the recent past of the United States. The Oklahoma bombing was one man’s way of expressing his dislike of the government. The exact definition of terrorism is not a solid line, it is a very wide line that isn’t defined. The general definition of terrorism is an attack of some sort against a person or place that

involves violence and/or destruction of property and is usually politically motivated. (Terrorism 3) Our fight against terrorism became something the terrorists might fear in 1970, at the Hague Convention. This United Nations convention basically defined . ..hijacking as a crime and required contracting states either to allow the extradition of hijackers to their country of origin, or to prosecute them in the state where they were arrested. (The Terrorists 146) Atkins states that one of the reasons it took so long to do anything about terrorism is that it is so hard to define, and therefore just as hard to enforce. He also says Declarations and conventions from the UN have lacked effective enforcement mechanisms, so they have been ignored by member states and have been

characterized as ?largely cosmetic. Basically, the UN is doing this to satisfy the public and little else. This lack of understanding of the meaning of terrorism has also been a hindrance when law 8:56 PM 12/14/96enforcement was actually implemented. Police aren’t trained to handle terrorist type attacks, instead they handle them like ordinary criminal attacks. (Terrorism 26-27) This gives the terrorists exactly what they wanted, publicity for their cause. The media is a terrorists best friend. Without the modern wide-spread media, terrorism would be worthless. The human nature that makes us stop and look at the horrible traffic accident is another reason why terrorism is effective. Ask someone 20 years from now what they remember about the 1996 Summer Olympics, and they will

say the terrorist bombing. This event was literally blown out of proportion by the media. It wasn’t a terrorist attack, there was no one taking credit, and no reason for doing it. Any juvenile delinquent could have easily found this information off the Internet. According to the infamous Jolly Rogers, homemade weapons are easy to make. He doesn’t gloss over the fact that attempting to make these weapons is usually illegal, and dangerous. There are approximately 50 different types of illegal activities detailed in the text file, which is over 100 pages long. This document isn’t hard to find to anyone looking. (http://space.acm.ndsu.nodak.edu/~rykramer/cookbook.html) There are usually a few kids every year who remove fingers trying to build home made bombs, and those kids are

the lucky ones, many have died making the explosive kitchen creations. One example is the tennis ball bomb. Supposedly, a tennis ball is cut open and filled with broken off match heads. The only thing the article doesn’t mention is the chances of filling the tennis ball up with match heads before friction ignites the thing in the builders hands. Another dangerous thing is the light bulb bomb. This is built by placing black power inside a light bulb. The theory behind it is that the filament will ignite the power, thereby sending glass fragments throughout the room. The only problem is when the builder forgets to turn off the light switch before screwing in the explosive light bulb. (http://space.acm.ndsu.nodak.edu/~ rykramer/cookbook.html) It is also true that two high school