Introduction
Terrorism has brought about a general atmosphere dominated by fear among the people in the world and this has triggered a particular political goal. Terrorism has been utilized all through the history of the world by political groups, ethnic groups as well as revolutionaries among other groups. The impact of terrorism has been intensified by the advancement in technology that has brought about coming up with the most sophisticated weapons and the ability of the media to spread the news of the attacks brought about by the acts of terrorism. The most horrific attack is the one that was carried out by the al Qaeda on September 11, the year 2001 in the United States of America (Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, 2010). This paper is going to consider the efforts that have been made to deal with terrorism by looking at the anti-terrorist tactics /organizations.
History of anti-terrorist tactics/organizations
The anti-terrorist organizations have existed for quite sometimes. There has been the emergence of the special operation forces. These are units from the armed forces that are small, which are offered training and given the necessary tools to carry out anti-terrorist operations that are special with the main aim of dealing with terrorists.
Basing on the case of the United States of America, anti-terrorist organizations have been part and parcel of this country all through the years during which there has been warfare. The United States of America as a nation possesses several tactics groups that are special.
One of the Anti-terrorist organizations is the “United States Army Special Forces” unit. The history of this group is traced back in the era of the Second World War (Anon: USAF Special Operations, 2009). Among the duties carried out by this group are foreign internal defense, direct action, and counter-terrorism among other duties. Therefore, this unit was set up to deal in combats whose forms are unconventional, basically guerrilla warfare. Since its creation, the duties linked to this unit have grown.
The United States Army Special Forces group was set up by the Pentagon. This unit was started under the guidance of the “United States Army Psychological Warfare Division” and this division was set up in the cause of the Second World War to get involved in psychological warfare to attack the German people. In the course of the “Cold War”, these Special Forces secretly penetrated in several countries to attack the organizations that support the Soviet Union.
In the course of the starting of the 1950s, there was the deployment of the Special Army Forces by the Pentagon to offer advice to the Army of South Vietnam. They offered training to this army in order to engage in fighting using the guerrilla style. They as well took part in counter-guerrilla battles while the United States of America intensified its war in which it was attacking North Vietnam. The United States Army Special Forces would emerge with seventeen medals of Honor in the course of this conflict but on the other hand, the North Vietnamese would ultimately emerge winners in the guerrilla war and put the country under their control.
In the 1980s, there was the deployment by the United States of America of the Special Forces armies in El Salvador to offer training to the military of Salvador who were involved in a civil war, FMNLF (Farabundo Marti National Libertarian Front). In spite of the United States Army Special Forces being present, there was the achievement of a cease-fire by the FMNLF in the year 1993 with the El Salvador government. FMNLF is now among the biggest political parties in this country.
In the 1980s still, there was another deployment made by the United States of America of the United States Army Special Forces in Colombia to deal with drug trafficking. The armies offered advice to the government of Colombia and the leaders in the military. However, because of the establishment of the drug lords, the efforts carried out by these armies have not achieved much success. This time, the United States of America still engages in the deployment of the Army Special Forces soldiers within Colombia from one region in the country to the other.
Most recently, US army Special Forces were deployed in both Iraq and Afghanistan. These troops made interactions with the local people, offered the basic requirements, and carried out humanitarian projects in order to have the people on their side. These troops as well went after the Taliban spies and disordered terrorist camps. These troops offered training to the Kurdish forces in Iraq in order to set war against Saddam Hussein. They also offered training to the military forces of Iraq that came up after Saddam Hussein being overthrown from the power (Anon: The history of the U.S Army Special Forces, 2010).
The next special anti-terrorist organization is the “United States Air force Special Tactics” group. The history of this particular group is as well traced back in the era of the Second World War, a time during which the air force was a section of the army.
From the time of the Second World War, this particular team has taken part in various operations all over the world including areas in Europe, Central America, the Middle East and Africa in defense of the interests of the United States of America together with the allies (Anon: Anti-terrorism, 2009).
In addition to these groups, there is another one known as the “Navy and Marine Corps Special Operation Forces”. This particular group turned out to be formal at the time when the September 11 incident came about. This particular group as well engages in activities that are aimed at dealing with terrorism among other military activities.
“Terrorist threat”, its history, and current status examined
Terrorism can be defined as the unlawful use of force to further social or political goals. According to Clark (2008), terrorism became well known among people in the Western world around the year 1950. Not considering the intentions, be it political intentions, religious intentions or even financial ones, terrorist groups are typified by their readiness to engage inhabitants in unusual warfare. The ordinary people are put in the midst of a conflict by the terrorists through threatening the safety of the public. This conflict is in most cases between the terrorist organization and the set up of this organization’s fighting.
In the United States of America, the terrorism history came to its peak in the year 2001, on 11th September. This was a time when hijacked planes were flown into buildings in Washington as well as in New York and also into a field in Pennsylvania by the Muslim jihadists. However, the America’s awareness of terrorism started many years back before this incident of September 11 at the era just after there was attainment of independence by colonies from England to turn out to be a nation.
The terrorists of that time carried out their operations along the Barbary Coast (North African Coast). The Mediterranean Sea, which is located in between the southern part of Europe and North Africa, experienced a great rise in piracy which intensified over time. While the United States of America got in the world stage, it made a discovery that it had to handle the Barbary piracy terrorist threat. Just the same way as Europe, the United States of America was overloaded with the demand for great amounts of money by those who ruled Barbary States of Algiers. And in the same way as the nations of Europe that had been handling the Barbary pirates for many years, the United States of America as well engaged in dealing with this issue by employing military action as well as diplomacy (Clark, 2008).
Considering the case in the United Kingdom, it has encountered several terrorist threats in its history. The Al Qaida and those terrorist groups associated with it have portrayed a special interest and willingness to undertake terrorist attacks without discriminating. These terrorists are aiming to attack the Western countries as well as these countries’ interest overseas.
Al Qaida and other terrorist groups connected to it carry out their terrorism activities with no conventional system and uphold links across the globe. Among these connections, there are those that are controlled from a central point by the Al Qaida but still there are those that are independent and are guided by deep-seated propaganda distributed through channels such as the internet among other channels.
The inspiration of the terrorist groups is gotten from the worldwide message eloquently given out by such people as Osama Bin Laden. This message does not offer any negotiation and emphasizes that the western countries stand for a threat to the Islam religion, that devotion to democratic establishments and the devotion to religion are unable to coexist, and the only appropriate reaction is violence. However, the majority Muslims do not accept this view.
The worldwide campaign to deal with terrorism has caused many terrorists, including the senior ones to be arrested or even murdered. Despite this, in the current times, Al Qaida among other worldwide networks still remains a very big threat. Senior figures such as Osama Bin Laden among other leaders and several terrorists that are trained continue being around at large. These terrorists are still in a position to carry out great terrorist attacks. This is evident in the attacks carried out recently in the year 2005 and 2004 such as bombings carried out in Madrid and London.
The investigations and trials carried out in the recent times indicate that several terrorist networks are going on planning and making attempts to undertake attacks indiscriminately. Therefore, there is likelihood that the threat from international terrorism will continue for an extensive period of time in the time to come (Anon: International terrorism. Security service M15, 2009).
The methodology of the anti-terrorist actions/organizations
Anti-terrorism is a defensive activity whose purpose is to bring down the probability of an attack utilizing the terrorist tactics at particular positions, or to bring down the susceptibility of potential targets to such plans. Setting up a counter-terrorism tactic calls for the participation of all the society’s segments or several agencies of the government. In handling the terrorists coming from foreign countries, the forefront duty is normally at the countrywide level (Feiler, September 2007).
Since terrorism is characterized by propaganda as well as training, getting to be familiar with their profile and the way they operate improves the capability to deal with terrorism in a more effective way. Many of the counter-terrorism tactics require a rise in the normal police and local intelligence. The current improved technology has widened the scope of the operations of law enforcement as well as the operations of the military.
To come up with a measure that can turn out to be effective at the time terrorism tends to be an occurrence that is isolated, the relevant organizations of the government are supposed to have the understanding of the source of this terrorism, what is motivating it, methods employed in preparing it, and the strategies that are put in place by the terrorist groups. At the core of such preparations lies good intelligence together with the social as well as political comprehension of whatever available injustices that might be resolved.
Military intervention is employed in dealing with terrorism. The terrorism activities have usually been used to bring about justification in military intervention in areas regarded to be inhabited by the terrorists. Such justifications were applicable in the case of the attack of Afghanistan by the United States of America. This as well applied to the attack of Chechnya by Russia.
Basing on the past records, military intervention has not very much been successful in terms of ending terrorism or preventing it. Even if military intervention can disorder the operations of the terrorists, this can only be on a temporary basis and on minimal occasions brings to an end the terrorism threat. Employing military actions without the accompaniment of other measures in most cases leads to realization of success that is only short lived. But in the long run, the military actions prove not to attain success. However, fresh methods like those used in Iraq are yet to be determined as of benefit or not effective.
Effectiveness of the anti-terrorist actions
Wars have been there all through history. At the present there are wars and the wars will still be there in times to come. However, the bottom line is that these wars keep on changing and therefore the way to fight them should as well change as time goes by. In the course of the advancement in technology, the complexity in the wars fought keeps on undergoing transformation.
Considering the case of the recent actions in Iraq, initially the American people were well accustomed to attack in Afghanistan’s terrorist guerrillas, at the beginning the Iraq campaign tended to be against nation operation but after Saddam Hussein being overthrown, the leaders of the American military encountered a guerrilla war. However, after the September 11 incident, there have been changes in the model of the American military. A flexible model that was more mobile was set up at the time after the attacks by terrorists in those times devastated complacent thought in the military. In order to deal with the enemy that hides in places that he can not be easily traced and waiting for the right time to attack, the military has to turn out to be responsive and carry out its activities together with the intelligence officers.
The move to a more flexible and adaptive military from the cold war arms race is highly needed. And because the warfare in time to come can very well be dealing with terrorism, the officials of America should do away with the usual conventional tools and in their place put the swift, cautious, and responsive tools.
By utilizing unmanned drones that are small instead of using recon aircrafts that are bigger and much more costly cuts down great costs. In order to bring about effectiveness in the tactics employed in dealing with terrorism, there should be improvement in the military intelligence instead of purchasing expensive equipments such as the aircraft tanks and carriers. This should be accompanied with ensuring cooperation between the armed forces that engage in the war and those who carry out data collection. Superior weapons can not be utilized effectively in the absence of the intelligence on the best ways to use these weapons (Harron, N.d).
Conclusion
Dealing with terrorism, in most cases, calls for incomplete intelligence because its nature is far much complicated. Because of this, fighting terrorism requires the anti-terrorist organizations to employ improved intelligence that is used to find the footprints left behind by the terrorists and in turn call in the military to carry out the fighting (Harron, N.d).
The terrorists can mostly carry out their operations basing on the conventional arsenal. Nevertheless, by putting too much concentration on the conventional strategies and not seeking to have adequate intelligence will plunge a nation in a situation where it will even be more prone to terrorism.
In the case of the United States of America, the anti-terrorist tactics improved after the terrorist attack carried out in the year 2001 on September 11. However, this improvement despite being associated with much precaution does not measure to the appropriate and effective level. Given the increasing level of the national debt, there is need to come up with the most effective tactics to deal with this new kind of warfare. The most appropriate way is to do away with some of the conventional weapons and come up with the intelligence methods that are more effective and cost-efficient and undertaking the step to bring together intelligence and conventional forces.
In the coming years, the distribution of information to various parts of the world, the setting up and the accessibility to new technologies, and the rising identification of the worldwide problems will provide great opportunities for economic advancement, growth of regions and cooperation throughout the world in political terms. Even with this potential human welfare, the world still continue being a place that is so much complicated, dynamic, and very dangerous. The world will go on being an environment whose security is not well known, especially basing on the threat of terrorism (Anon: United States Special Operations Command, 2010). Therefore, there is great need for the anti-terrorist tactics or anti-terrorist organizations to improve on the strategies to be employed in dealing with terrorism in order to make the world to be a safe place for people to stay in.
Reference
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Feiler, G. (2007). The Globalization of Terror Funding, Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Bar-Ilan University, p. 29, Mideast Security and Policy Studies No. 74. Web.
Harron, J. (N.d). Sharpening the sword: The changing face of war. Web.