Terrorism Essay

Words: 1552
Pages: 7

Seth Gutzmer
Terrorism
Boston Marathon Bombing: 3 deaths, 264 injured. Oklahoma City Bombing: 168 deaths, over 680 injured. Sandy Hook Shooting 26 deaths. 9/11 Attack; 2,999 deaths, 1140 bystanders now diagnosed with cancer, because of the polluted and debris filled air. All of these events were sought out and executed by terrorists, trying to inflict terror into the people of the United States by killing innocent people. The FBI says that there “is no single, universally accepted, definition of terrorism, but the U.S. federal code defines it as “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” Terrorists look like normal people but nobody would know if the person next to them is a terrorist. That reason and those events are why the war against terrorism began.
“Terrorist attacks come in many different types and forms; 51% of terrorist attacks are from bombings or explosions, 31% are from facility attacks, 13% are from armed assault or assassinations, and that last 8% is from a combination of kidnapping, unarmed assault, and highjacking”(Plumer). Bombings are by far the most common of the attacks because of the size that they could be. As in the Boston Marathon Bombing, the terrorist used a pressure cooker placed in a duffle bag. That small of a bomb injuring over 200 people is easily the smallest type of terrorist attack with the most amount of damage.
There a thousands and thousands of voices not being heard because of terrorist attacks. Their lives lost all because a group of terrorists wanted to make a point. Their insight of these events could better prepare our nations to better protect and defend it from another attack. Nobody should have to die an early death unwillingly. “After 9/11 President George W. Bush reassured Americans: we were attacked because we are beautiful people, spreading freedom around the world’(Bandow). Terrorists do not just attack for fun or because they want to, “Robert Pape of the University of Chicago studied the most recent cases: ‘The central fact is that overwhelmingly suicide-terrorist attacks are not driven by religion as much as they are by a clear strategic objective: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view

as their homeland’”(Bandow). Most have a valid reason or objective for a cause they are trying to get at, but that does not justify the useless loss of life.
After the 9/11 attacks New York’s Metropolitan Authority made a plan to combat terrorism, the “see something, say something” program. Meaning if there is suspicious activity in the area, report it before something could happen. “ In 2008, it proudly announced that 1,944 people did exactly that. What it didn't mention is that the reports of suspicious activity and items led to only 18 arrests over the previous two years -none connected to terrorist plots. So it may come as no surprise that a network of federally funded intelligence offices set up” (Chapman). This plan worked, it has also be applied in most airports to this day, preventing terrorism before it happens.
School shootings have almost become a regular event nowadays and that's absolutely terrifying to here.
Being a high-schooler and seeing those shootings happen not knowing if it will happen here at our school. It could very easily happen here, a student puts a gun with ammunition in their backpack takes it to school and bang! People are dead and your school makes it on national television.
Even though america has far less terrorist attacks than most other places in the world, there will always be a threat of terrorism. Terrorism is everywhere and happens all the time, and our nation has learned from it.
Every attack will make this nation more prepared to better prevent these attacks in the future.

Seth Gutzmer

Terrorism
Boston Marathon Bombing: 3