Terrorism - a Threat to Civilization and Global Order

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There is always going to be someone, or some group, that feels ignored and dissatisfied with the status quo. There is a very thin line between the step one is willing to do something about it and the step where one resorts to violence. No matter how much money we put into fighting terrorism, domestically or abroad, preventing this extra step and potential attacks will always be a challenge. I believe terrorism is an inevitable phenomenon and part of a ‘new normal’ in our society. It boils down to the fact that everybody on this planet thinks/acts in their own unique way for their own unique reason. Like telling a lie, we will never reach a point where they are nonexistent. I’ve always said that people will do what they want and the only solution is mitigation. Although more frequent in modern society, terroristic acts have been committed for centuries before the U.S. was even a country; they continue to occur after the most powerful military in the world has declared a “War on Terror”, and they will continue to do so for an unforeseeable time. Even though terrorism is a “new normal” in our society, we cannot treat it as such. We must spend all the resources we can to stop terrorism, even though it will probably never be defeated. If we treat terrorism like a bad storm, becoming reactive instead of proactive, more people die and the terrorists win.

The realistic best-case scenario for terrorism in the U.S. would be pre-September 11th attacks. Terrorism grows with technology. Because globalization and the internet has made accessing information and imitation very easy, terrorism benefits from this. But because we cannot just simply go back to pre-modern times, the best the U.S. can do is attempt to minimize terrorism to its pre-September 11th levels. As I mentioned earlier, terrorism is inevitable due to the freedom Americans have to make their own choices. So, limiting terrorism to the “Timothy McVeigh’s” of the world would be a realistic best-case scenario. In order to accomplish this, the U.S. must proactively combat terrorism abroad by denying territorial gains. The Islamic State derives much of its legitimacy from its success. Driving ISIS from its conquered territories (using drone strikes to limit human casualties is preferential) will undermine the group’s legitimacy in the eyes of aspiring jihadists, thereby hurting its ability to recruit. Secondly, the U.S. must shut down foreign fighter pipelines. The U.S. and its allies must work together to identify those individuals who intend to act on the violent Islamist ideology. This requires hard intelligence work and even closer coordination between countries to identify suspicious travel. In addition to fighting terrorism abroad, the U.S. must proactively defend domestic land by first, ensuring that the FBI shares information more regularly. State and local law enforcement are critical actors in fighting domestic terrorism and would greatly benefit from FBI intelligence. Secondly, the U.S. needs to expand training programs for local and state law enforcement to deal with shooters/terrorists. Lastly, the U.S. needs to maintain essential counterterrorism tools by continuing legitimate government surveillance while simultaneously respecting individual privacy and liberty.

Terrorism is widely agreed to be horrific, yet it is difficult to define. Given its nature as an indefensible and unjustifiable act, terrorism’s past unsurprisingly offers little in the way of lessons for the present day. Today’s Jihadist are holy men in some eyes and murderers in others. But, in all its forms, terrorism’s disregard for the sanctity of individual human life condemns it as one of mankind’s most horrendous creations. The U.S. spends countless amounts of resources, money, soldiers, and even some of our freedoms, on countering terrorism, abroad and domestic. With terror attacks going on every single day (just yesterday 38 died, 166 wounded from bombings in Istanbul), they are truly an inevitable phenomenon. However, this does not mean we simply respond to it as such. The U.S. must continue to adequately provide attention and resources by prioritizing terrorism both foreign and domestic. Even if we defeat ISIS, there will always be someone who thinks spreading fear and using violence is a good strategy to change political policies. We may never “defeat” terrorism and many people will criticize the amount of resources we spend on attempting to do so, but I truly believe that every life saved is worth the uphill battle.