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Terrorism: Politics By Other Means?

© lawhawk

Having watched the news over the last 10 years, I have noticed that there have been numerous associations made between several countries and terrorist groups. These associations range from harboring known terrorists to actually sponsoring and arming these individuals so that the terrorists could carry out their agendas. Among the most cited countries are Iran, Syria and Libya.

Why, you ask, would a country support terrorism? This is a rather simple answer but the implications are far reaching. Terrorism isn't just the actual act of violence, but rather the whole environment that is created by the threat of an act. Instead of facing the costs of raising a large army to face another country on the battlefield, a country can train or pay a select few individuals to infiltrate their enemies countries, or their backers' countries in order to wage a terrorist campaign. Since an army can't easily combat individuals who aren't on the battlefield, security forces have to deploy preventative measures in the hope that it will deter terrorists. Sometimes this works but, if an individual is determined enough, there really isn't anything that can protect the public from the mayhem created by the bombings, mass shootings and chaos created by even the threats of violence.

Governments have to put on the face of not dealing with terrorists since that would essentially tell their citizens they are caving to terrorists' demands. They will almost always try to engage in a dialog in order to bring about a peaceful resolution. The US-Iran-Israel arms for hostages situation is an example of where the US repeatedly announced they wouldn't talk with the terrorists who kidnapped American citizens. Yet American negotiators engaged in talks with the Iranians in order to bring about the release of the hostages through the delivery of weapons to the Iranians to fight the Iraqis during the Iran-Iraq war.

As countries find that terrorism can bring about rewards that could otherwise be extremely costly in terms of manpower and natural resources, it is very likely that terrorism will continue to be linked to various nations. The only way to reduce terrorism is by engaging with these supposed rogue countries and show them that terrorism wont bring about their goals, only the wrath of their fellow nations and a greater resolve not to deal with the terrorists.

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