Understanding Terrorism

Understanding Terrorism

by: Anthony R. Marte

Lets start with a definition. Terrorism is violence committed in order to promote a political, or religious idea through fear. The key word here "promote", as the main thing that determines whether a terrorist attack has occured is motive. Terrorism has been in the political spotlight since 2001. And with it came American lead intervention into many foreign countries; followed by intense debate between Liberals and Conservatives on issues such as immigration, and hate speach.

American Intervention/War in the East

Since the imfamous September 11th attacks the resources of the strongest military force have been wasted. We've had a prescence in the Middle East even before 9/11 (probally one of the main reasons for the attacks to begin with), the rise in patriotism and grief just increased the support for needless war. Thousands of Americans have died for their oil hungry government. If the goal was to prevent future acts of terrorism than much like the war on drugs, the war on terror failed miserably. And it doesn't seem like we'll be getting out of that region anytime soon. Leaving would leave locals open to attack by terrorist organizations, staying would argueably make things worse too. It's almost a damned if you do, damned if you dont situation. Though an increase in training of our "allies", along with the rise of certain militias within these warzones is slowly decreasing the need for US intervention. One stunning group is a Kurdish all female fighting force that is currently driving ISIS back. (Talk about girl power) ISIS fears these women because they believe that dying to a woman in battle would keep them from heaven and the 72 virgins promised. You'd think I'm joking, but I'm not, they actually believe this. Which makes it all the more satifying that the YPG has taken the fight to them.

Here is a video from CNN interviewing these badasses: All-female Kurdish unit!

While the need for the US to be there has gone down, the middle east is still very much unstable as now these groups that fought ISIS are fighting each other. This is probably part of the reason why the US is still posted there.

Moving on to drones (smh): Introducing drone technology!

Now with just the press of a button war crimes can be commited from the comfort of a military base. In all seriousness though, the US has had some serious problems with how they conduct drone strikes. When internal documents from the Pentagon reveal that an exthreme amount of strikes don't hit their intended targets, we wonder why Middle Easterners burn the American flag. Check out this leak from "The Intercept" for more info. The Drone Papers!

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