Terrorism: weapon of mass destruction

Terrorism is a weapon of mass destruction, which can cause many deaths. Essentially, it is a war against all civilized society, so the struggle to eliminate, or at least to restrict this violence, is also a war. Unfortunately, the cost of war on terrorism is very high. Everyday thousands of innocent people are dying because of irrational terrorist acts. One of the main characteristic’s of terrorism is the creation and exploitation of fear to bring about political change. Furthermore, all terrorist acts include the threat of violence, committed by nongovernmental groups or individuals. The main goal is to frighten and thereby intimidate a wide audience, such as a rival ethnic or religious group, an entire country, or the international community. Therefore, terrorism can be also defined as a brutal act, which has a political motive or goal and can be perpetrated against innocent people. The word terrorism was first used in France to describe a new system of government adopted during the French Revolution in the XVIII century. The regime de la terreur (Reign of Terror) was intended to promote democracy. However, the cruelty and violent excesses of the terreur distorted it into a fear instrument. The terrorism today is different, with many different forms and many different causes. Understanding the cause for which the terrorist fights, takes a lot of time and consideration. Terrorism has occurred throughout history for a variety reasons, such as historical, political, cultural, religious, social, psychological or economic. Most of the time, people are get involved in terrorism because of political oppression, discrimination, or religious persecution. Finally, some terrorists are motivated by very specific issues such as poverty and a need to feed their families. As we know, the numbers of terrorism attacks have become unmanageable, especially, after the attacks on New York City’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Arlington, VA, on September 11, 2001, causing approximately 3000 deaths. Therefore, terrorists’ targets are innocent people in order to create an atmosphere of fear and insecurity. Furthermore, people don’t feel safe and believe that military force is the most effective way to combat international terrorism. As we can see from The annual Voice of the People survey (2004) by Gallup International interviews, more than 50,000 people in more than 60 countries around the world, representing the views and attitudes of more than 1.2 billion global citizens, five out of ten global citizens (51%) thinks the use of military force is the most effective way to reduce international terrorism, whereas four out of ten think the opposite. This is almost exactly the same proportion as when this question was asked in 2002 (54%). In conclusion, terrorism is a weapon of mass destruction directed at society and has to be controlled and prevented from growing in strength.Švietimo akademijaVytauto Didžiojo universiteta