Terrorism

Terrorism has been very difficult to define for several reasons. One of the hardest reasons is because of political agenda. Although some specific acts have no affect on political change, the agenda of the specific organization is used to bring about some type of change in another society. As described in the book, some organizations can be called freedom fighters because of the goals on their agenda. These same organizations are often labeled as terrorists, not because of their agenda, but because of the way that they achieve their goals. Another reason that terrorism is so hard to find is that not everyone has the same outlook on what constitutes terrorism. Some believe that striking fear into a person or society in order to coerce them to coincide with your political agenda is terrorism. These words carry much weight but are limited only to those non military aggressors. I believe that even military, although structured and abiding by certain laws, can strike fear into the surrounding communities as well as the enemy in which they are fighting. Would that not constitute terrorism ( even if in a small and rare form ). One of the most typical reasons terrorism is hard to define is because of extensive role the media plays. The media doesn’t take the time to broadcast horrific acts imposed on third world countries. Instead, it waits until a higher class society is targeted to broadcast the incident all over the globe. This could be on the agenda for the terrorists, but no one can say for sure. As you look at the many different definitions of terrorism we see that all it can be swayed by one’s own perception, political agenda, and motivation. Terrorism is a term that is still ill-defined and thrown around very loosely throughout many countries of the world. The real definition lies in the hearts of those either committing the devastating acts or those affected buy the terrorists. Terrorist are also categorized by the nature of rational, psychological, and cultural. Rational terrorists weigh the consequences of terrorism before employing it. Psychological terrorists have a personal distaste for themselves and turned it groups or ideas and become a true believer of those practices. Cultural terrorists are said to be shaped and motivated by their culture for their culture. As you see, there are many factors that could possibly defined terrorism and those that commit these acts, but because of all the various factors terrorism us have a general definition.