Terrorism and National Policy Essay

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TERRORISM & NATIONAL POLICY

Terrorism and National Policy

The main concern of the U.S. National Security Council relates to the existing terrorist movements that pose risks to Americans citizens and its territory. The U.S. has historically been one of the main targets of the Islamist terrorist groups alongside other countries such as Israel. The U.S. has undertaken various national policies to combat terrorism within and beyond its borders. However, the September 11 attacks on U.S. led the U.S. through Bush Administration to take up critical measures to deal with terrorism and its threats. This saw the U.S. attacking the backyard of renowned terrorists Iraq and Afghanistan being key targets. This led to the top leaders being killed and ushered in the leaderless Jihad terrorist movements existent today. These new movements demand new approaches to combat them. New ideologies and measures must be designed to ensure that the leaderless Jihad terrorist movements diminish.

Sageman's presents diverse views on radicalization in the evolution of the leaderless Jihad, and recommendations on how the existing jihad terrorist movements may be faded away in the context of the U.S. National security policy. Sageman points out a number of strengths and weaknesses of the evolution of the leaderless Jihad terrorist movement. He explains how the U.S. National security policy should take into account the mechanism of operation of the leaderless Jihad terrorism movement. These views present the opportunities, as well as, the limitations of the policy measures that the U.S. National Security Council may make to deal with the new wave of the leaderless Jihad terrorist groups

Question 1: The strengths and weaknesses of Sageman's views

Sageman's views of the root causes and process of radicalization in the evolution of the leaderless Jihad in the context of the national security policy are comprehensive. A number of strengths and weaknesses characterize these views. The first strength of his views is that have capitalized on explaining the weaknesses of the current leaderless Jihad terrorism movements. In this case, the U.S. security policy makers may capitalize on the weaknesses of the new leaderless Jihad terrorist in order to curb their movements

Evidently, Sageman identifies the weaknesses of the leaderless terrorist movements. The leaderless Jihad terrorism has provided opportunities for militant individuals to attempt to create their identity of using others in the process. It is easy to combat the militant individuals. The other weakness that the leaderless jihad terrorism encounters and mentioned is that this movement is vulnerable to conditions that reduce the attractiveness of the young people into this form of terrorism. These conditions may include the weakness in imposing discipline on its members thus giving the members the liberty to participate or desert the movement

On the same note, Sageman explains that the success of the leaderless Jihad is much dependent on the truthfulness and activity of the virtual leaders. The success of the movement is at the mercy of the virtual leaders because followers have a high likelihood of deserting the movement if leaders are discredited by their involvement in making false claims. The other weakness explained is that the effectiveness of the leaderless Jihad terrorism is also constrained by the relevance of the ultimate goals of the movement. In the context where the ultimate goals are discredited with time, the movement may not work

Secondly, Sageman's view has the strength of linking the efforts by the law enforcement agencies, and the mechanism of operation by the leaderless terrorist movement. Besides, he presents the views that the leaderless social movement may escape the most repressive state strategy. This is limited on the context that the followers have fear of establishing leadership that may end up being a target of law enforcement agencies. He also explains that the leaderless jihad terrorism cannot shift from violence to political compromise. This is because it is limited in finding an approach to reach a consensus but for the use of the internet, which is practically not possible

Thirdly, Sageman's view critics the efforts by the law enforcers vis-a-vis the response of the members of the leaderless jihad terrorist movement. This critically helps the anti-terrorism efforts to be designed with the response of the terrorist at hand. Evidently, he explains that too vigorous eradication campaign may be counterproductive to leaderless jihad terrorism by prolonging the life of this movement. This is because the eradication campaign may be perceived unjust. This attracts new recruits into the movement. He suggests the need for measures of restraint aimed at preventing people from joining the movements. The leaderless Jihad should expire on its own The weaknesses of Sageman's view on the radical evolution of leaderless Jihad terrorist movement vis-a-vis the national security policy is that his views are biased on the response of the terrorists to the policy that is implemented.

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Sageman has a bias on how certain policy measures, such as publicizing the criminals being sought-which is said to create glory among terrorists and attract more members to the organization. He also argues that a radical campaign against these movements would increase the membership into these groups. As much as the arguments may hold water, they may not stand true at all times because they depend on other variables.

Secondly, Sageman's view is biased to address the leaderless jihad terrorist movements, in the context of attempting to make these movements diminish. These views have failed to consider that the longer the period these movements take to fade, the more the adverse impacts that they cause to the peaceful society. Sageman's view is against a radical campaign against these movements. This may not work in the context that the leaderless terrorist movement's activity are radical and have adverse impacts on the global security

The policy recommendations have addressed most of the aspects of Islamist terrorism. This includes some aspects in Homeland Security. The premise objective to fight terrorism is safeguarding homeland security. The U.S. should avoid handling global Islamist terrorism because as war against Islam. This would mobilize Muslims against the U.S. It has also addressed the aspects of containment of the situation. The existence of the terrorist social movement depends on the ability of the movements to attract young Muslims. In this case, U.S. actions perceived to be war on Islam attract more young people to terrorism. Without this, the young people will not find aspirations and hopes to join such groups

The policy recommendation has addresses the aspect of glory that comes out of terrorism. The need to seek individual and collective glory is said to have attracted many young people to terrorist movements. For instance, distributing posters of most wanted terrorists in areas like Pakistan has proved to have the opposite meaning. It has also addressed the aspect of moral outrage by explaining the need to diminish the sense of moral outrage. For instance, the presence of U.S. soldiers in Bagdad streets is perceived to be the American war against Islam, and this fuels war.

The recommendation has also addressed the issue of countering enemy appeals. This comes by explaining that terrorist movements thrive in attracting new recruits by putting up appeals claiming that the U.S. is at war with Islam and all Muslims must join the war lest they are destroyed. There is a need to counter lies by the terrorist leaders. Other policy recommendations have also been explained like elimination of discrimination against Muslims, elimination of terrorist networks, finding scientific research on terrorism, and denying the terrorists acquisition of weapons of mass destruction

The policy recommendation has not addressed all aspects of Islamic terrorism. Two aspects that are missing include addressing the issue of immigration laws, and terrorist perception about the U.S. The second issue that is not addressed is the terrorist's perception of the U.S. As a major supporter of the Israel attracts on the Palestine border. The issue of U.S. As a supporter of Israeli attacks on Palestinian border needs more investigation. I hold the position that most of the Islamist terrorists perceive the U.S. As an enemy for it backs up Israel, and fights terrorism emanating from the Middle East. From the readings, Sageman argues that the movement makes appeals get new members through spreading the idea that U.S. fights against Islam, and not terrorism

Question 2: Bush Policy & How it can be Improved

Bush policy to counter terrorism may well be understood after the September 11 attack. First, war language characterized Bush policy. Bush adopted the language of war by militarizing the global terrorist problem. Besides, it undercut the value of legal procedure and law enforcement, judicial responses, and intelligence. The language of war led to a number of activities to be undertaken. They included torture and rendition of terrorism suspects. This made it difficult for the U.S. To get international cooperation.

Secondly, Bush policy on countering terrorism was significantly ignored the relevance of unilateralism. Evidently, Bush policy was based on America's rejection of Kyoto Protocol, and its insistence on attacking the perceived terrorist bases. This policy led the U.S. To attack Iraq, and Afghanistan.….....

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