Professional Documents
Culture Documents
02/21/2005
POSC 211A
Terrorism Report
What is Terrorism?
The people of this world all view terrorism differently. Even here in our own
country everyone differs on the meaning of terrorism. The UN defines terrorism as,
“[a] criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general
public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any
ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other nature that may be invoked to justify
Whitehouse define terrorism as, “…the unlawful use of force or violence against
Each has it’s own worth to a different person and each can be taken
1
Schaechter, Iris. http://www.unodc.org/unodc/terrorism_definitions.html 2000
2
Terrorism Research Center. http://www.terrorism.com/modules.php ©2004
3
Roskin, Michael. IR The New World of International Relations. (Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2005)
240
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Trevor Elliott
02/21/2005
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Terrorism Report
Domestic Terrorism
domestic terrorism which is, “…[The] unlawful use of force or violence, committed
problem in America, the land of the free. The people that would go to the lengths of
diminishing our own homeland are wrong. The key issues behind domestic terrorism
vary from new trends in global and domestic terrorism to analysis of terrorist group
terrorism, but none are known more than the terrorists of the Middle East.
International Terrorism
Currently there’s a war going on in Iraq between Iraqi terrorists and the U.S.
military forces. This war has costs and/or benefits that can be interpreted differently
by lots of different people. The White House and the Pentagon assess the
cost/benefits that the $60+ million guess of a cost of the war was worth it, when
most see that as nothing more than the initial down payment on the war. We will
gain another country as an ally that we will pull a lot of strings in; we got rid of one
4
FBI (http://www.closeup.org/terror.htm 2004)
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Trevor Elliott
02/21/2005
POSC 211A
Terrorism Report
of the worst dictators in the world, and were able to stop the threats of weapons of
mass destruction.
the war. He thinks of it as a fool’s mistake. He says he told Bush that he’d better
prep Americans for casualties and Bush told him there won’t be any casualties.
Robertson said this about Bush, “[He, Bush, is] the most self-assured man I've ever
met in my life.”5
Senator Robert Byrd I think has some of the most interesting things in
regards to the Iraqi war. Byrd says, “Mr. President, the Emperor has no clothes.
This entire adventure in Iraq has been based on propaganda and manipulation.
Eighty-seven billion dollars is too much to pay for the continuation of a war based
on falsehoods.”6 This is a direct quote from a speech Byrd gave. This is a major
example of how much he just dislikes Bush’s idea of war in Iraq. He says the
emperor has no clothes, which I take is they’re caught with their pants downs and
originally setout to do in Iraq. He also adds more comments in this speech of his, he
goes on to talk even more of how Bush is our downfall of our government. He
finishes his speech with more anti-Bush cynicism by reading a quote from the book
5
http://www.robertsilvey.com/notes/death_in_iraq/
6
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/Remarks_by_US_101703.htm/
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Trevor Elliott
02/21/2005
POSC 211A
Terrorism Report
Nuremberg Diaries, written by G.M. Gilbert, in which the author interviews
Hermann Goering.
‘We got around to the subject of war again and I said that,
contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people
are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and
destruction.
declare wars.’
‘Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the
That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being
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Trevor Elliott
02/21/2005
POSC 211A
Terrorism Report
exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any
country.’ 6
Dr. Pat Buchanan is also outspoken on the subject of the Iraq war. He
challenges Bush’s motive sand what he plans to do with our other international
relations in that area, such as Israel. Buchanan is persistent on the fact that war is not
the right means to go and that are motives are askew and not right. The oil is one of
the ideas he believes Bush is doing this for and believes it’s a personal vendetta
against Hussein.
Now the fact that we’re fighting in an Arab region, we can’t leave out the
Arab media and their views. It seems that that the Arab media is stuck in between
assessing and not assessing the effects, costs, and benefits of the war. Though they
do tell of how they are glad we are winning, yet are also sad and grieving for those
who died on either side, mainly civilians who have grieving families somewhere.
The British media on the other hand, think that we went to war for our own
petty causes and our men are being killed at our fault at an alarming escalating rate.
British media also assesses that the U.S. should leave Iraq and let it fix its own
problems and that the U.S. shouldn’t have gone in to begin with. The faults and
debts the U.S. is in is its own fault and should not have disobeyed the U.N. and gone
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Trevor Elliott
02/21/2005
POSC 211A
Terrorism Report
Videos-IR Theory and American Foreign Policy
The videos on IR theory and the U.S. foreign policy were of good use to a
class. They go and explain a bunch of different aspects to international relations and
the theories surrounding it. Movies showed how real life is in action revolving
The most intriguing video was the video talking about Service “crisis”
Response Days. That was an intriguing video to watch. The fact that there should
never be more that 10,000 service “crisis” response days in a year was a real neat
thing to learn. The video taught how one should deal with the extra days and what
all the extra responses were from. He said four key events are what triggered more
and more. The key events were, the European Détente, the war of 1973, the Vietnam
War ending and the shah ends. In efficiency to dealing with all the over load of
service “crisis” response days the number one way is to pretend it isn’t there, and
Through the videos we also were taught about Idealism and realism. The
idealists will do something that isn’t possible, yet they hope and believe it just might
happen and then that way they never have to make a life changing decision. Where a
realist is a person that understands the world and knows the way it works. A realist
will sacrifice the one or few to save the many or hundreds. A realist will make life
changing decisions and keep them his life and know what it means to have
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Trevor Elliott
02/21/2005
POSC 211A
Terrorism Report
experienced the world. Those are the extremes of the two sides set in more of a
practical, and not concerned with abstract theories or idealistic views of life.7 And
the other side of the spectrum, the idealist is defined as somebody who aspires to or
7
“Realist.” Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. 2003.
8
“Idealist.” Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. 2003.
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