Currently, the United States and its allies are in deep negotiations to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear enrichment program. Still, the United States is faced with another challenge in its foreign endeavours that of ensuring that a stable unity government is established in Iraq. The objective is to establish a unity government in Iraq that has minimum interference from Iran. The US economy is no longer favourable to support extra expenditures on international operations such as Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Thus, US President Barrack Obama is striving to keep his commitment to withdraw all the US troops from Iraq. However, the main problem is that Iraq is still not politically stable and the dilemma is what would be left behind once the US troops in Iraq are withdrawn from the country (Neary 34).
The other dilemma is how Iran would be prevented from interfering in the internal affairs in Iraq since the possibility of terrorist groups taking charge of the country are high when the US troops are withdrawn from Iraq. For the past four years, Iraq under the leadership of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has not yet achieved the desired level of democracy. Going by the WikiLeaks documents released recently on the Iraq war numerous cases of rape; murder and torture by security forces are still prevalent in the country. It is quite evident that following the just-concluded parliamentary elections in Iraq where Iran had a big role in causing a stalemate in the formation of a new government Iraq is far from stable.
A fragile deal aimed at forming a unity government is now prevalent in Iraq which means that Ayad Allawi, the main opposition candidate may be forced to take up the position of the national security overseeing committee because he had a majority of the votes in the just-concluded parliamentary elections. With such a position in the hands of an opposition leader and the main rival of the ruling prime minister, it is obvious that Iraq’s national security might be at stake. However, this plan might work for the benefit of the country particularly because Ayad Allawi will be able to prevent the domination of Iran in the internal affairs of Iraq.
The greatest mistake the world leaders and the international community can make in helping Iraq achieve the desired level of democracy is to negotiate with Iran on its role in Iraq. The reason is that the United States has begun the war in Iraq and it is the US that should play a major role in ensuring that Iraq gets back to its feet and the desired levels of democracies are achieved. Negotiating with Iran’s leftist agents which have continued to meddle in Iraq’s internal affairs to advance the interests of Iran would be detrimental because Iran would not agree to leave Iraq. The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibility of achieving lasting peace in Iraq. The main argument is that there is a possibility for a just and lasting peace in Iraq.
“Just peace” is a term that can be defined depending on how the war was fought in Iraq, how the war was conducted and the understanding of the just war. For example, the term “just peace” is derived from the tenet of a “just war”. A just war refers to the rules of war which includes less use of force during the war, ensuring that fewer combatants die or get injured during the war and having a just cause to go to war as well as ending the war as soon as possible in order establish the ground for a just peace. From the above rules of a just war, it is quite evident that the war in Iraq was fought for a just cause and the aim was to destroy any elements of weapons of mass destruction which Saddam’s regime would have proceeded to produce. The evidence of nuclear plastic tubes and the stiff opposition staged by Saddam in preventing the United Nations nuclear investigators from carrying out their investigations in Iraq were reasons enough for a just war to unearth any form of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
The war was also conducted in a way that only the targeted rebels and locations suspected to be used for the production of mass destruction were destroyed. In addition, the war was also conducted in a way that only the targeted individuals such as Saddam Hussein and his accomplices were arrested and charged. The current effort by the US government to withdraw its troops from Iraq is another rule of a just war. In this regard, it is quite evident that the rules of a just war were followed in Iraq and therefore the possibility for a just and lasting peace is also possible. Since just peace is also defined by the success and the winner; it is true that there is a considerable amount of success and winning in Iraq.
Some of these successes are comprised of political and economic achievements. Politically, Iraq has been able to hold democratic elections twice something unheard of during Saddam’s regime. This is surely a just peace because researchers contend that one of the many tenets of a just peace is to restore democracy which is a legitimate thing to do. Although the US and its allies changed the government in Iraq, it is still true that the war was just because the former government was a great problem to the Curds who never wanted to be part of Iraq due to the increased suffering they experienced at the hands of Saddam Hussein and his government.
Economically, the war on Iraq was a Just war because the Curds were able to settle in the northern part of Iraq. Previously, the Curds had no land of their own and this was the reason why they never wanted to be part of Iraq and thus they formed the biggest resistance against Saddam. While the oil reserves were just below the Curds locations, the Curds never benefited in any way from the oil reserves. The war on Iraq brought just peace because earnings from oil exports in Iraq are used for equal development of the nation including the areas inhabited by the Curds. Such areas were previously neglected and thus the Curds remained behind in every economic aspect. From the religious perspective, it is hard to reconcile the religious groups in Iraq and therefore this is not a viable option for a just peace.
Taking the example of Ireland, religious reconciliation has not achieved any meaningful results due to persistent fights between different religious groups. However, the current structure of the Iraqi government composed of federal, republican, pluralistic and democratic parties is evidence enough to demonstrate the fact that there is a possibility for a just and lasting peace in Iraq. Federalism in the current government means that the governing principles are based on history, geography and power separation and not on sect or ethnicity. This is a great sign of progress towards a lasting pace in Iraq.
It is imperative to note that just peace will never be achieved through the complete withdrawal of the US from Iraq because the main objective is to eradicate terrorist and militia groups from Iraq to ensure that the established government remains stable. For example, in Somalia, militia and terrorist groups have continued to destabilize the transitional government and this should not be the case in Iraq. The terrorist and militia groups were highly prevalent in Iraq before the onset of the just war. Although the majority of these groups fled to Afghanistan and other areas around Pakistan, indeed, such groups may completely be eradicated from Iraq and a course for just and lasting peace achieved. Today, extreme efforts are being undertaken to restore the shattered economy in Iraq, protect the victims of war and necessitate a quick transition into a democratic nation as well as institute a well functioning institution that can be used to bring the current and previous rulers who abused human rights in Iraq to justice. Since peace entails justice through economic and political settlements it is obvious that Iraq will achieve a just and lasting peace characterized by a wide democratic space (Tinyere 56).
To deal effectively with the militia and terrorist groups, the US and its allies should engage in deep consultations with the Pakistani and Afghanistan governments to chat the way forward to ensuring that militias and terrorist groups do not thrive in their territories. This would be a step forward towards ensuring that such groups fail to establish their territories in Iraq and thus pave way for just and lasting peace in Iraq.
Works Cited
Neery, Bob. Just Peace. New York: Sage Publishers, 2009, p. 34.
Tinyere, Lord. Don’t let Iraq Fall Prey to Iran. New York: Sage Publishers, 2010, p. 56.
The propaganda movie “Triumph of The Will” hit German theatres on March 28, 1935 at a time when Germany was undergoing a turbulent political and social period. Two years earlier the Nazis led by Adolf Hitler had ascended to power at the height of the Great Depression and assumed office in a democratic but fragile state dating from the Weimer republic.
Instability and numerous checks and balances that hampered the viability of a stable government hampered the political climate. Several interest groups were still influential enough to threaten the existence of the Nazi regime and these included the aristocracy, the army, conservative civil servants and politicians as well as internal Nazi threats. The greatest of all the foes that Hitler faced was Ernst Rohm, the commander of the paramilitary SA (Sturmabteilung), and most disgruntled insider of the regime. Rohm and the paramilitary wing of the Nazis were of the opinion that the administration was dragging its feet on the implementation of reforms promised during the 1932 election campaign that brought them to power. The SA also wanted to merge with the army to make a combined security unit under the leadership of Rohm (Ailsby, 2005, p 54). The SA therefore alienated itself from the establishment as more and more conservatives and Nazis piled pressure on the Chancellor to rein them in.
As a result, Hitler conducted a purge between June 30 and July 2, 1934 in which he ordered the execution of all perceived rivals in a gruesome episode now remembered as the “Night of the Long Knives”. At the same time, he took the opportunity to neutralize any other opponents not necessarily connected to the SA and its leadership. The social systems in Germany were also under strain as the country reeled from the effects of the Great Depression. The Judiciary was also under attack from Hitler and his cronies as they did away with laws that they felt threatened or hampered their exercise of power.
It is in this setting that Germany found itself in late 1934 as the Nazis prepared for their Sixth Party Congress in Nuremberg. Racial Nationalism was the ideology that Hitler intended to proclaim at this mega-convention and its purpose was to consolidate the German people to increase support for the regime. This party congress served as the backdrop for the propaganda film “Triumph of The Will ” directed by Leni Riefenstahl. The purpose of the film was to capture the massive display of devotion that Nazis had for Hitler and his party while at the same time portraying Hitler as equally devoted to the German people and their prosperity. The project was so huge the director ended up using 30 camera operators and numerous technicians (Speer, p.3).
Its aim was to present Hitler as a new messiah leading a regime that would forever etch the place of Germans in history. After its release in 1935, the Nazi Party Congresses increasingly became larger and more colorful as the propaganda bait fulfilled its purpose. In addition, the Nazis had a full-fledged propaganda ministry run by the eminent Nazi, Joseph Goebbels who followed the development of the “Triumph of the Will” with a keen interest.
The propagandist behind “triumph of The Will” was Adolf Hitler himself who personally beseeched director Leni Riefenstahl to record the proceedings of the 1934 party congress and make a propaganda film out of it. Though initially reluctant to participate, Riefenstahl proceeded to make the film with the full support of the Hitler administration and received crucial technical and political support. After seeing the enormity of the project and its possible impact, Goebbels began a political contest with Riefenstahl in a bid to take over the project or at least have it fall under his ministry’s authority. It took the personal intervention of Hitler himself to ensure that the project film developed independently of the Nazi’s interference. The target audience of the film was the German people who Hitler knew were desperate for focused leadership and needed confidence boost during those difficult times.
The linguistic choices used by the chief propagandist of the film were a mixture of symbols, metaphors and analogies. The metaphors used were supposed to rally Germans to the Nazi cause, “We want this people to be hard, not soft, and you must steel yourselves for it in your youth!” Hitler said (Jones, p.3). This aimed at preparing the country for any eventuality good or bad, and was probably the reason behind its persistence in the Second World War.
Examples of the analogies used can be seen in the statement, “Our party remains as firm as this rock and will not be divided by any force in Germany”, meant to impress upon the audience the endurance of the Nazi movement (Hitler, p.2). By 1934, Nazi Germany was a one party state and efforts to identify the party with the German people were already underway as shown. Hitler wanted to impress upon his audience the durability of his movement by increasingly giving it a transcendental image. The aim of these linguistic choices was to impress upon the audience that Nazism was a monolithic and unstoppable force that would lift the whole country up. The denotative meaning of these linguistic devices was always hard and durable materials, but the connotative meaning to each was stability in the National Social movement.
The visual choice most used by the propagandist was animation as Kelman explains, “That is the imparting of spirit or life to matter, is achieved by close-up and angle of vision” (2003, p.3). “Most remarkable here is the episode of flags parading, in which there are the merest glimpses of those bearing them … Close-up plunges the viewer into the midst of flags that seem to move by themselves … “reality” becomes figurative, things move as if charged with supernatural power, with a will of their own, or more precisely, the will of Hitler” (Kelman, p.3). The Nazis were keen to fill the minds of Germans with an almost religious devotion to the party and its schemes. It is this that inspired the use of animation, to convey a subliminal impression that “Hitler the messiah” was leading a change in the German way of life at the service of a greater cause.
There was an even deeper meaning hidden in the film, “…the basic images or motifs are varied, orchestrated. These motifs are: ancient things (buildings, statues, icons); the sky; clouds (or smoke); fire; the swastika; marching; the masses; Hitler … The central theme which they develop is that Hitler has come from the sky to kindle ancient Nuremberg with primal Teutonic fire, to liberate the energy and spirit of the German people through a dynamic new movement with roots deep in their racial consciousness” (Kelman, 2003, p.2). This dizzying combination of symbols and sounds combined to enthrall the audience at a time when filmmaking was very rudimentary.
In addition to these devices, Riefenstahl applied her own techniques to contribute her share of propagandist efforts. The other visual techniques included transfiguration of ordinary people to mindless souls through camera angling and the exultation of Hitler to a god amongst men through varied focus.
In his speech, Hitler made deliberate attempts to sweep the audience into frenzy through his words. His deliberate pauses, voice intonations, shouts and silences aimed at creating an awe-inspiring effect on the audience, you just had to stop and pay attention. There was no chance of getting bored or falling asleep as the audience stopped to cheer every few minutes (Hitler, Triumph of the Will, 1935).
The objective of these propaganda techniques was to impress upon Germans the key principle of National Socialism; racial nationalism. To do this the Nazis had to make Germans view themselves as a dignified and supreme people, then convince them that they must unite to succeed and finally, pinpoint a common enemy to unite against.
The Triumph of The Will was also a clear attempt at manipulating the audience’s emotions to achieve predetermined goals. The intention was to arouse sympathy for the Nazi cause and euphoria at its immensity and pervasiveness. Judging from the behavior of ordinary Germans before and during the Second World War, the film achieved its goals.
At the same time, the expectation was for the best of Germans to be automatic Nazis or at least to identify with Nazism. This requirement often came through the peripheral route, with a great dose of vagueness. Simple Germans had to assimilate Nazism and its tenets without question and the propaganda ministry was always on-hand to ensure this was happening. The metaphors, symbols and analogies used throughout the film simply inspired deep Nazism without rational explanations.
It is these same messages that Adolf Hitler repeated at the Nuremberg party conference and on numerous subsequent occasions. Sometimes it was done forcefully, but most of the time he used constant persuasion and repetition to hammer in his message. The result was an increasingly fanatical country in which a Holocaust against the Jews took place without much protest from the working class or intelligentsia.
In conclusion, Triumph of the Will is one of the best propaganda films in history. The lingering question that hasn’t been answered to date is whether Riefenstahl knew that she was facilitating propaganda or being a propagandist, as Kelman says, “Fair enough, it’s now scientific commonplace that the act of observation changes the thing observed … Riefenstahl was then in the position of observing over and over her original response, the effect she recorded, Could she then not have recognized it as serving the purpose of propaganda?” (Kelman, 2003, p.7). Ms Riefenstahl took the answer for this question to her grave when she passed away in 2003.
The intended effect of The Triumph of the Will was definitely achieved but with devastating consequences for Germany and the rest of the world.
Works cited
Ailsby, Christopher. The Third Reich Day By Day. Minnesota: Zenith Imprint, 2005.
Hitler, Adolf. Triumph des Willens Quote. 2011. Web.
Jones, Julie. Professor Julie Jones’ Course Website. 2011. Web.
Kelman, Ken. “On Leni Riefenstahl and Triumph of the Will.” Logos Journal (2003): 3.
Speer, Albert. Architectural direction of the Nuremberg Rally. 2011.
Triumph of the Will. Dir. Leni Riefenstahl. Perf. Adolf Hitler. 1935.
Wheeler-Bennett, John. The Nemesis of Power: The German Army in Politics 1918–1945. Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
Contribution of the Germans to the Failure of Market Garden
From the 17th to 25th September of 1944 the allied military troops launched an operation called Market Garden (Mcarthur 1990, 202). This operation was by far the largest airborne operation that had been seen during the Second World War. The operation was fought in Germany and Netherlands and its main aim was to seize the major bridges and canals of Meuse and Rhine River and their major tributaries. This was to enable the allies to cross easily the rivers and outflank the German troop at the Ruhr region which was and still is the heartland of the German industrial complex. With the control of the major rivers and bridges by the allies, it would have been easier for them to secure the German-controlled Netherlands (Learning Resources, 1).
The allies were well prepared for this mission. For its success, the mission had to consist of two operations; the garden operation and the market operation. The market operation composed four of the six airborne divisions. These divisions were to land on the north and North-East locations of Eindhoven and Nijmegen and capture the important road bridges of the region. The garden on the other hand only consisted of the XXX Corps and was led by the guards’ armored division (Mrazek 2008, 188). According to the plan, they were to arrive at the southern side of the target location in three different troops each one day apart. They would be joined by the airborne division and breakout at Arnhem bridgehead. It was difficult for airborne troops to fight for four days with limited armor especially since they lacked gears to protect them from attacks by tanks. However, the German forces of the region had been facing a lot of attacks from the Canadian troops that had been in the region. By the time the operation Market Garden was being launched the German troops were fleeing from the area. They were spread out on a radius of about 100km trying to contain the second allied air force troops from the south. The allied troops therefore expected to get minimal resistance from the Germans forces.
The German army at that time was very weak since it had suffered a lot of casualties. The situation was very serious that Adolf Hitler himself took control of the matter and worked hard to strengthen his army. He called from retirement some of the best commanders he had to organize an army and fight the allied troops. The process of recruiting and reinforcing the army was immediately underway. Reinforcements were brought from Germany so as to increase the number of troops and the experience of the army. Having studied the movements of the allied troops the German army and air force were placed on strategic locations and were ready to fight the allied troops. Their magnitude and power were a key to the failure of the Market Garden operation. This had not been expected by the allied troops and caught them by surprise. The German troops were familiar with the geography and terrain of the region making it easy for them to maneuver around and attack their enemies unexpectedly.
Response of the Germans to the Allied Operations
Through their intelligence, the Germans were able to track and know the movement of the allied troops especially the second division of the British army. They were aware that the allied troops would launch an offensive attack at Nijmegen, Wessel and Arnhem to reach the industrial town of Ruhr (Ryan 1995, 244-248). The Germans also knew that the air force would be used to launch offensive attacks against them but they did not know the exact spots of the attack. With this intelligence the German troops were well prepared and planned a strategic attack against their enemies who were unaware of the operation.
September 17th was the first day of the battle. On this day, the allies saw a lot of victories. Almost all their troops landed successfully on their expected sites facing little or no resistance. The troops were able to advance and capture most of the bridges, canals and rivers. The progress of all the troops was as expected and the allies hoped to capture the industrial town of Ruhr and take control of the German-occupied Netherlands.
The British landings at Arnhem caught the Germans by surprise. Some of the commanders thought that the paratroopers were commandos who had come to kidnap them. Therefore they moved to safer locations. However with time they were aware of what was going on and were quick to respond to the attacks. The first move was to send reconnaissance troops to the scene to investigate the status of the situation. They also sent reinforcements to the troops at the bridges to offer resistance to the allied troops. This quick resistance was fruitful and the Germans were able to recover a copy of the Market Garden operation from an American officer who was shot dead.
On the second day the reconnaissance troops were heavily beaten at the bridge at Arnhem by British troops as they attempted to cross back to the city. However, the German troops had defended well the area east of Nijmegen and were able to seize one of the landing zones of the 82nd airborne zone. There was a lot of fog and clouds on this day which delayed the lifting of air troops favoring the Germans to kill and capture allied soldiers who lacked enough ammunition, armor and supplies.
On the third day at Arnhem German troops spotted the 1st battalion, an allied troop and opened fire at them. The battalion was defenseless since it was caught on open ground. It was disintegrated and the survivors quickly retreated. The scenario was almost the same to other allied troops in Arnhem. The allies faced a lot of casualties and several soldiers were taken as war prisoners. In the days that followed the allies faced a lot of casualties. The main causes of these casualties were poor communication among the troops, poor weather and the strength of the attack of the German troops who knew their movements and had a clear understanding of the region. By the 9th day of the battle the allied troops were so weak especially those who were in the Ruhr region. The allies started to evacuate their troops from the battlefield. To avoid further attacks from the Germans the evacuations were conducted at night. Most of the survivors were evacuated from Ruhr and were ferried through the Rhine River under heavy protection from the Canadian and Polish troops. At last, Germany had full control of Ruhr and Operation Market Garden came to an end.
References
Learning Resources for Teaching History. 2011. Second World War: Operation Market Garden (Arnhem). Learning Resources for Teaching History, 1-11.
McArthur, Charles W. 1990. Operations analysis in the U.S. Army Eighth Air Force in World War II. Chicago: American Mathematical Soc.
Mrazek, James. 2008. Airborne Combat: Axis and Allied Glider Operations in World War II. Miami: Stackpole Books.
Ryan, Cornelius. 1995. A Bridge Too Far. New York: Simon and Schuste.
One causal argument regarding Osama’s killing is an assertion that there is a connection linking the occurrence (his killing), to future peaceful coexistence and even possible retaliatory terrorist attacks. This shows the event as a precedent to other events. A causal assertion, for example, takes up the form of x-event causing a y-event. Here x refers to a source and y refers to a consequent. Consequently, Osama’s killing has sparked different reactions across the globe. This paper aims to show how one action leads to another, how people with a common interest can agree or disagree, and also how terrorist activities are viewed.
On the 1st day of May this year, an elite unit of the U.S. armed forces stormed a residential house in Pakistan. In the process, they killed a renowned terrorist, Osama Bin Laden (Wright 12). His killing was welcomed all over the globe as a justified end to a terrorist responsible for the death of thousands of innocent people across the world. This occurrence is also believed to be a positive and noteworthy turning-point on the war against terrorists, and related terrorist groups like al-Qaeda. Conversely, Osama’s killing was condemned by a number of his affiliates. These include “the Hamas, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, members of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Taliban” (Sherwell, 7). They have gone to an extent of wanting a total withdrawal of Americans in the Middle East. Sources even reveal encouragements by Jihadists to retaliate his death by executing terrorist attacks.
Generally, Osama’s killing has had beneficial effects. However, there is a need for precautionary measures to be taken citing retaliatory attacks to revenge his death by his affiliates. Because of his death, millions of people directly affected by his terrorist attacks have been in a way relieved believing that justice has finally been done. Because of his death again, we do feel that the war on terrorism is effective and terrorism can be dealt with. Another effect of his death is exposed in al-Qaeda, the biggest terrorist group in which he was a leader. By killing him, this group can be overcome.
It is also seen that after his death, a lot of Muslim countries starting with Pakistan where he was killed, approved what the U.S. had done. This shows that the relationship between the U.S. and Islamic countries is not bad after all. This is contrary to popular belief that Americans and Muslims don’t quite see eye to eye. Politically, there is this belief that because Obama’s administration was responsible for his killing, he might get a second term in office. As a result, his killing has had diverse effects.
Osama’s death has also had detrimental effects. These effects have come mainly from individuals and groups affiliated with him. Ever since his death, these groups have promised retaliatory attacks mainly against the U.S. government. Among these groups are the Al-Shabab militia group, the al-Qaeda, and the Muslim brotherhood among others. These groups are known to take up jihadist terrorist actions from anywhere and therefore making the world unsafe (Michaels, 2). As a result, Osama’s death may spark more terrorist attacks in the name of revenge.
“The killing of Bin Laden by U.S. forces is probably a more significant and symbolic victory in America’s ongoing counter-terrorism campaign” (Maraia, 12). This proves that the effectiveness of counter-terrorism abilities possessed by the U.S. is effective. With this, terrorism will effectively be minimized and the world will be more peaceful and a better place. On the other hand, though, some of his affiliates will try to make possible retaliatory attacks which will still be insignificant after rooting out the main problem. Therefore, Osama’s death is seen to have had significant effects.
Works cited
Maraia, John. The Impact of Osama bin Laden’s Death. Washington DC. United States Institute of Peace. 2011. Print.
Michaels, Maggie. “Al-Qaeda Vows Revenge for Osama Bin Laden’s Death”. Associated Press 2011: A1. Print.
Sherwell, Philip. “Osama bin Laden Killed: Behind the scenes of the Deadly raid”. The Daily Telegraph 2011 late ed.: A1. Print.
Wright, Tom. Osama’s Death. The Wall Street Journal, 21 (1), 12-23. 2011. Print.
When one sees the bright and charming colors of the tourist shops, restaurants, museums, and vintage streetcars at Fisherman’s Wharf, it is hard to believe that this site was once home to immigrant fishermen who had to work hard and fight the sea and the weather to earn their money. Under the baking sun or in misty fogs, the fishermen, mostly of Italian origin, caught and sold fish, sometimes right from their boats. Italian names are nothing unusual for this area: Many locals are great-grandsons and daughters of the first Italian immigrants, and some of the restaurants and squares still bear Italian names (e.g.,Alioto’s Restaurant, Ghirardelli Square).
The row of neat blue-, red-, or white-painted boats immediately strikes the eye. The colors chosen by owners are not always random: Blue and white are the colors of the fishermen’s patron, La Madonna del Lume. The Memorial Ceremony at Sea is held every year in honor of all the living and fallen fishermen. Originally it was a Sicilian tradition, butnow it has become an annual event atFisherman’s Wharf. Although the Wharf has become much more glamorous and exquisite than it was at the beginning of its history, it is still a home for thousands of fishermen whose workhas not changed much since the nineteenth century.
However, there is something more important than the traces of the history of the local fishermen. The SS Jeremiah O’Brien, the Liberty ship, is a great contrast to small and light fishing boats. She played a very important role in the history of the United States: The ship took part in the D-Day invasion and carried “beans, bullets, and black oil” to all the men and women fighting the war, as stated on the information plaque. She is not the only one of the Liberty ships that survived; the name of the other is the SS John W. Brown, and she resides in Maryland. Both of the ships were answers to the German U-Boats and were built extremely fast, in only 60 days. Their design—simple, but stern—originated in Britain. They were constructed of identical parts that were mass produced in American factories all over the country.
The Jeremiah O’Brienhas made seven voyages, and crossed the English Channel eleven times. Knowing this, it is even more stunning to understand that the ship is still operational. Her service during World War II ended in 1946, and she entered the Reserve Fleet in Suisun Bay, California. The ship was brought back to life in 1979, when Merchant Marine veterans steamed her under her own power. The restoration was sponsored by many donations from a variety of individuals, firms, and companies. In 1994, the shipparticipated in the 50th anniversary of Operation Overlord in France, and then returned to the United States. The journey took six months, and during it the ship visited its hometown in South Portland, Maine. The ship is crewed entirely by volunteers who also took part in her restoration and maneuvering on the memorial voyage to Normandy.
The ship is now named the National Liberty Ship Memorial, and everyone is welcome aboard. It is not only a remarkable museum and memorial to all of the people who fought and died during the World War II, but also a functioning ship. Visitors can observe its powerful engine at work on the so-called Steaming Weekends. The Jeremiah O’Brienismoored at Pier 45 in San Francisco. It is both an attraction to tourists and an all-important historical landmark.
Security experts often posit that the greatest terrorist threat to the so-called western countries of Europe and North America come from homegrown violent extremists (HVEs). To give due credit, even though the number of plots developed by HVEs sympathetic to various extremist causes including racism, anti-Semitism, and jihadism, have increased in recent years, federal and state security officials have also improved in their disruption. However, given the potential adverse effects of a single case, it is essential to critically review the countermeasures employed by security officials to combat HVE threats.
Social media and the internet may be supporting the existence and continued operation of HVEs. Nance (2014) essentially defined HVEs as individuals who, rather than travel abroad to fight for a foreign-based terrorist organization, remain home to conduct terrorist attacks. The term has been widely used to refer to individuals who are sympathetic to terrorist groups such as the al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, as well as right-wing extremists. In rare cases, these HVEs maybe unaffiliated with any groups, but push their terrorist agenda. They are often inspired and motivated to act on propaganda on the internet and social media, and sometimes interact with like-minded people, or get influenced on these platforms.
Terrorist attacks, at first glance, may appear spontaneous and random, giving the feeling that they may be impossible to predict or stop. The increasing sheer number of terrorist attacks instigated by HVEs, and wide range of extremist agendas being pushed further reinforces this impression. The attacks that the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for seemingly holding to this notion as well. For instance, in July of 2016, a French citizen, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel drove a truck through a promenade, killing 84 civilians and injuring at least 300 more in Nice, France (Armstrong, Derrick, Hienz, Ligon, & Southers, 2019). The individual, despite having no formal ties to the Islamic State, was sympathetic to the terrorist group and had executed the attack in their name.
The Frequency and Response to HVE Attacks
The prevalence of HVEs sympathetic to notable terrorist groups and extremist ideals have increased in recent years. Dauber and Robinson (2019) assert that since 2014, individuals supporting specifically the Islamic State have attempted 455 attacks outside of the declared territories of Syria, Iraq, and other countries. These are widely referred to as external operations. However, Dauber and Robinson (2019) note that these figures represent both successful terror strikes, as well as plots that were thwarted through the intervention of law enforcement personnel. The schemes that were disrupted through military raids in Iraq or Syria against notable Islamic State instigators and planners are, however, not included. Of the reported 455 attempted terrorist attacks, 80% or an estimated 363 were carried out by HVEs who identified as Islamic State supporters. The meagre remaining 20% constituted attacks made by foreign fighters who had returned home or individuals who had relocated to other countries solely to pursue terror attacks (Dauber & Robinson, 2019). This figure shows that there are many people within the country drawn to the ideals held by terrorists, and are ready to commit attacks in their name.
Fortunately, despite the oppressive number of HVE attacks, and the illusion that they are random acts that cannot be predicted, they are regularly stopped by security officials. Perhaps a shining example of this is when authorities apprehended Rondell Henry in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Rondell had plotted to attack pedestrians at National Harbor, which was a popular outdoor venue with many regular visitors, following inspiration by Islamic State mujahidin (warriors) on social media which he had followed for two years. He also stated that he had modelled his attack to that of Lahouaiej-Bouhlel’s in Nice, France (Armstrong et al., 2019). Luckily, the would-be terrorist and HVE were discovered and arrested in time.
The case of Rondell Henry is not an isolated incident. Dauber and Robinson (2019) indicate that law enforcement and other local security officials have successfully intercepted and effectively halted an approximate 58% of all HVE attacks within the past five years or so. Admittedly, this level of success in disrupting inspired attacks is not an ideally high number, but clearly, some things are being done correctly. It is, therefore, essential to understand the measures that are being implemented to identify, intervene, and stop homegrown violent extremist acts of terror.
Understanding the Recruitment and Nurturing of HVE Threats
To understand the countermeasures undertaken against HVEs and inspired terrorist threats, it is essential to know how the phenomenon of HVEs fits within the overall narrative of terrorism and acts of extremist violence. Given that the primary terrorist organization in the world right now, to which a majority of terrorist acts have been attributed to, is the Islamic State, many of the examples in this review will be in the context of this particular group’s activities, ideas, and philosophies. Furthermore, the declaration of the caliphate in 2014 is highly regarded as a heightening factor for modern terrorism around the world. It, therefore, follows that no review of modern terrorist recruitment and mobilization strategies, tactics, and ideas can be divorced from an assessment of Islamic State operations.
There is the example of mass recruitment, where the Islamic State leaders initially encouraged radical Muslims to immigrate into Islamic State territories once they announced the Syrian and Iraqi caliphate. Forty thousand individuals heeded this call (Luna & McCormack, 2015). However, the overall aim was to implement an approach where fighters would be sent back home to orchestrate attacks, and also encourage HVEs through social media to execute attacks on their own proactively.
In more contemporary times, social media and the internet have been used extensively as a recruitment tool for terrorist and extremist groups. The most popular and recent example of such a campaign was the “March Forth Whether Light or Heavy” video that had been posted by the Islamic State, and widely reposted by individual users. As a result, this video, which called for Muslims everywhere to ‘join the fight’ in their land wherever that maybe, was heavily circulated online. It was, in essence, a HVE recruitment tool.
This recruitment approach of speeches that are released on the internet and social media platforms is not unique to the Islamic State. Propaganda speeches were also previously posted by al-Qaeda, al-Shabaab, and other extremist Aryan groups such as neo-Nazis, Christian Identity groups, and the KKK. These speeches have been instigating sympathizers to execute attacks against specific groups of people, whether the West or particular racial and ethnic minorities. However, very few groups have had the relative success of the Islamic State in prompting sympathetic HVEs to act. As a result, this would suggest that the organization’s propaganda may not be solely responsible for the operations conducted by HVEs sympathetic to the Islamic State’s cause.
Beyond online and social media propaganda, the Islamic State has had infamy for utilizing recruiters and virtual planners. They implement a combination of private chatrooms and public-facing platforms to identify potential sympathizers, foster relationships with these individuals, and eventually compel them to take action (Levin, 2015). Foreign fighters in this scenario play critical yet fluid roles in the effort to recruit HVEs by amplifying the group’s propaganda, planning attacks, or personally recruiting HVEs. These roles are embodied in a modern context with Samantha Lewthwaiter, or the “White Widow”, who was a British national turned foreign fighter who recruited and nurtured HVEs for a terrorist attack in a mall in Nairobi, Kenya.
These networks, whether physical or virtual, maybe what distinguishes the Islamic State, and its success in nurturing HVEs than other predecessors. This approach allows the Islamic State to continue posing the single most significant terrorism threat to the US and the West even in the face of diminishing territory, consistent raids and strikes, and loss of support in their Syrian and Iraqi regions. For this reason, I summarily dispute the Dauber and Robinson (2019) finding that 80% of all Islamic State attacks have been executed by HVEs alone. Instead, this assessment fails to distinguish the cases where the individual involved had been recruited, either physically or virtually, influenced, and set up for the attack. As a result, it is reasonable to assume that recruited local HVEs have executed some of the attacks. In contrast, others have been completed by individuals who were inspired without any particular ties or contact with recruitment networks.
Countermeasures Addressing the HVE Threat
The recruitment networks used to identify and communicate with the sympathizers of terrorist and extremist groups are highly vulnerable to attack. From the highest levels of hierarchy, targeted and coordinated military and special operation strikes have been able to kill or otherwise eliminate the influence of battlefield commanders, leaders, and virtual planners of these groups (Luna & McCormack, 2015). The most notable of these in recent times is the elimination of al-Qaeda leader and patriarch Osama bin Laden in coordinated special operations strike in Pakistan.
Law enforcement has also consistently apprehended and prosecuted members of terrorist and other extremist groups, including bloggers, recruiters, outspoken sympathizers, and other agitators. Terrorist recruitment cells have been dismantled and their members prosecuted, virtual planners and media emirs have been arrested or eliminated in the battlefield, and military operations such as Operation Inherent Resolve have garnered relative support and execution. These activities have significantly allowed security officials to hamper the recruitment of an entirely new generation of HVEs and foreign fighters on many levels, therefore crippling many major terrorist and extremist groups in the world.
Another important countermeasure in the fight against homegrown violent extremists, especially in the US, is the development of the Department of Homeland Security, and supporting legislature and policies. The Federal government has significantly collaborated with state, local, tribal, and territorial leaders, as well as the private sector to cripple homegrown threats dramatically. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in particular, has illuminated the strategies, tools, and tactics that have, in the past, been brought to bear on terrorist activities within the borders of the country, and without. While past successes may not necessarily guarantee future results, it can be reasonably projected that strategies that have succeeded in the past should be reviewed to address the disparate challenges of today.
The DHS, through the enabling of legislation such as the US Patriot Act, and similar policies implemented worldwide through the efforts of UN-affiliated nations has successfully implemented a multi-tier protection approach that employs modern, technology-heavy methods in intelligence-gathering and analysis. This approach, coupled with the specialized training of frontline personnel and the building of international partners’ capacity works to purge international terrorist and extremist activity, and further push the country’s boundaries outward by creating a comprehensive defense system. A more unique, and a rather intuitive implementation of this defense strategy involves the DHS employs multiple, mutually supportive defense layers that override the weaknesses of a single system that may be vulnerable to a single point of weakness, and ultimately failure. This context and implementation have been employed in various capacities, including cybersecurity, border security, and aviation security. Multiple and redundant security layers and intelligence-gathering platforms provide awareness of hostile entities within the US borders, or outside its borders to allow early intervention before an attack is launched.
The DHS has also, notably, pioneered the development of the National Targeting Center (NTC), which has achieved several noteworthy successes within the borders of the US, and in extending the protective boundaries of the country outwards. The NTC’s primary counterterrorism functions have been those of screening and vetting individuals, and these are duties in which the NTC has been on the global forefront. The NTC uses, within the counterterrorism laws and policies, an array of sophisticated targeting tools, as well as various levels of open-source and classified intelligence in a proactive rather than reactive capacity to identify potential threats. These may include terrorist threats, both international and local, extremist movements, illegal support networks, and international criminal syndicates. The organization then identifies emerging targets and paints them for domestic and international authorities to facilitate interdictions across all modes of transportation for both passengers and cargo that may represent a threat to national and international security. This targeting helps to ensure that HVEs, as well as their facilitators and potential sympathizers, are disabled at the earliest possible stages of their operations, making the NTC a critical, if not the most effective counterterrorism tool in the federal government’s arsenal.
The truth of the matter is that, before 9/11, there existed little infrastructure to share information and resources among various national and international security agencies regarding terrorism and extremist acts of violence. The events of this fateful day, in large part, led to the development of the Department of Homeland Security, and various national and international policies such as the US Patriot Act, the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR), the EU Council Common Position 931 on combating terrorism, and the UK Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Bill. With these policies and resolve to counter terrorist threats whenever they may arise, there was introduced sufficient infrastructure to identify and implement smart, targeted sanctions and blacklists, which were explicitly designed to disrupt terrorist activities. This was achieved through the widespread highlighting and criminalizing of terrorist members. Effectively, this cut off support to such entities, alienating them and depriving their access to funds and other resources through freezing assets, extraditions, and travel bans.
These measures, however, also translated locally, as the DHS provided avenues in which state, local, tribal and territorial leaders (SLTT), and private entities could share information regarding terrorist and extremist threats with the federal government. Before 9/11, there barely existed a functional, streamlined framework to facilitate the collection and relay of Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR). SAR is defined as the official collection and documentation of behavior that may be observed to be indicative, within reasonable parameters, or pre-operational planning of terrorism or other criminal activities (Luna & McCormack, 2015). Post-9/11, the DHS, along with the Department of Justice, and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) along with SLTT entities, developed the Nationwide SAR Initiative (NSI).
The NSI would be a critical resource in the identification of terrorist activities while maintaining the legal, social, and civil liberties of the American Citizen. It would establish a framework for the gathering, documentation, processing, analyzing, and relay of SAR information relating to terrorism, with acute consideration of American civil liberties and rights. Fusion Centers, which had previously existed in a pre-9/11 capacity to help law enforcement bodies with criminal intelligence analysis, expanded drastically. These local and state-operated centers quickly became the focal points for the collection, receipt, analysis, and transmission of terrorism and HVE-related information between the SLTT entities, and private sector partners, with the federal government. This engagement with SLTTs, the development of Fusion Centers, and collaboration with local and national authorities, coupled with legislative support through the development of policies and bodies such as the NSI have played a significant role in the detection, prevention, and protection against HVEs.
Conclusion
It is essential to reflect on the steps and progress that has been made in the prevention and mitigation of terrorist threats since the insurgence of terrorism in the 20th century worldwide. However, the destructive nature of terrorist attacks demands constant vigilance, and review of security policies, strategies and tactics that have worked, or failed, in the past, and how these approaches can be implemented in future protection efforts. With a global focus on the war against terror, terrorist and extremist groups are resulting in the cultivation of homegrown violent extremists (HVEs) to push their agenda, and execute attacks remotely in their name. This has been enabled considerably by the development of information and communication technology and the internet.
Modern terrorist groups and organizations, such as the Islamic State, have developed elaborate recruitment networks through the internet and social media, as well as other virtual platforms that reach large audiences, and push their propaganda. However, these recruitment networks are vulnerable to attack. A viable approach to the mitigation of HVE threats and attacks would be the combination of conventional investigative techniques, both virtually and personally, with a more concerted effort towards disabling virtual planners, agitators, and recruiters both within the borders of the country, and abroad. The relative success of local authorities in intervening and stopping local terrorist activities lends relevance to this approach.
Further, the supporting infrastructure of the DHS, the NSI, and legislative policies on a national and international level have significantly streamlined the burden of information gathering, analysis, and transmission to allow the disabling of HVE recruitment and mobilization cells. While past successes may not be reliable indicators of future performance, one can optimistically project that if law enforcement and security officials, supported by this framework and resources can continue to disrupt physical and virtual recruitment networks consistently, then the threat of HVEs may be eliminated.
References
Armstrong, G., Derrick, D., Hienz, J., Ligon, G., & Southers, E. (2019). Characteristics of homegrown violent extremist radicalization.Los Angeles: National Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events University of Southern California. Web.
Dauber, C. E., & Robinson, M. D. (2019). How homegrown violent extremism will likely continue to evolve as a significant threat. Online Terrorist Propaganda, Recruitment, and Radicalization, 81-102. Web.
Levin, B. (2015). The original web of hate: Revolution Muslim and American homegrown extremists. American Behavioral Scientist, 59(12), 1609-1630. Web.
Luna, E. & McCormack, W. (2015). Understanding the law of terrorism (2nd ed.). LexisNexis Group.
Nance, M. W. (2014). Terrorist recognition handbook: A practitioner’s manual for predicting and identifying terrorist activities (3rd ed.). CRC Press.
Nowadays, people’s life is often saddened by terrorist attacks and other related events. Being influenced by the ideas of particular movements and radicals, certain individuals decide to destroy the lives of many people to fight for the things they find to be important. This situation is common in numerous places around the globe especially since the beginning of the 1990s when such tendencies in the world society started gaining momentum. On April 19, 1995, a nice sunny day in Oklahoma was darkened by the actions of a young extremist Timothy McVeigh. This young man was determined that he was right fighting for the rights and freedoms of the people of his country. However, it appeared that the reality was very different for McVeigh as he became a criminal and committed a terrible crime against fellow humans. In the following paper, this sad event along with its connection to the activity of militia groups will be discussed. Overall, the evaluation of the situation suggests the conclusion that McVeigh not only became insane on the reason of one’s fears and wrong ideas, but he was also affected by the activity and ideology of militia groups, and, thus, he became a part of this social movement in a way.
First of all, speaking about the actions by McVeigh and the evaluation of his motives along with the connection to the activity of militia groups movements, the description of the events of that sad day is to be considered. The following comment by Ottley (par.5-7) helps understand what happened.
Main body
The events of April 19, 1995
It was April 19, 1995 – a perfect, sun-drenched Oklahoma morning in springtime. Against a perfect blue-sky background, a yellow Ryder Rental truck carefully made its way through the streets of downtown Oklahoma City. Just after 9 am, the vehicle pulled into a parking area outside the Alfred P. Murrah Building and the driver stepped down from the truck’s cab and casually walked away. A few minutes later, at 9:02, all hell broke loose as the truck’s deadly 4000-pound cargo blasted the government building with enough force to shatter one-third of the seven-story structure to bits. Glass, concrete, and steel rained down. Indiscriminately mixed in the smoldering rubble where adults and children are alive and dead. The perpetrator, twenty-seven-year-old Timothy James McVeigh, by now safely away from the devastation was convinced he acted to defend the Constitution, for he saw himself as a crusader, warrior avenger, and hero.
In this situation, the question is what is behind the actions of this young man, and what motivated him to commit such a terrible act. In his comment, Ottley mentions that McVeigh thought about some exalted ideas of defending the Constitution of his country, and, thus, to pursue its interests. However, such an explanation raises a few more questions related to the source of such ideas in McVeigh’s head. A closer look at the situation helps us see that McVeigh was associated with militia groups which infected his mind with a lot of dangerous ideas such as distrust and hatred to the US government and the desire to fight against its actions. Going deeper into the ideology of militia groups and the other related extremist groups existing in the United States since the beginning of the 1990s many important details about the way of thinking of this insane man are revealed. Below, the history and the main peculiarities of militia groups will be discussed to explain the motivation behind Timothy McVeigh’s actions.
The emergence of militia groups movement and its influence on the people’s way of thinking
Discussing the activity and the history of militia groups in the United States, it should be stated that their first steps were made in the 1970s and 1980s. However, at that time these groups were quite small and disorganized. For this reason, they did not influence the country’s life significantly. At the begging of the 1990s, these groups started their first controversial standoffs with the representatives of the government which became the beginning of their active functioning. In the next few years, the movement along with its ideology and ideas acquired its popularity among the population of the country. By the mid-1990s, the movement consisted of thirty to sixty thousand active members in all the fifty states of the country. Militia groups were not an example of unity in their ideology and main concepts. There existed numerous variations in their message. However, the main feature of these people’s way of thinking was the idea that they were threatened by the actions of the government of the United States. One of the biggest concerns by the members of the movement was their desire to protect their right for having an armed state in the Second Amendment. Initially, this movement evolved from patriotically determined people who had no bad inclinations in their minds. They stood for the protection of human rights and freedoms stated in the Constitution of the country. However, later some radically thinking individuals spread the ideas of serious threat coming from the actions of the government’s agents. The spread of such dangerous ideas became a turning point in the history of the movement. The other turning point for the functioning of this movement became such events as murdering Gordon Kahl and arresting and destructing David Koresh by the agents of the government. These events were qualified as the beginning of a “war” that the government initiated against the militia groups. As a response to such actions by the governments, militia groups started a series of terrorist attacks and confrontations with the representatives of the government. The actions of the government directed to disarm the American people became critical for the activity of militia groups. People were afraid that the Government had intentions to threaten their freedom and harm their families. This became a motivating power for thousands of Americans to join the rows of the movement and to engage in illegal practices of storing arms and organizing conflicts with the representatives of the authority. Unfortunately, the Government itself added acuity to this terrible situation by murdering people storing arms, and not providing enough explanation to the public as to the legal side of such actions. Among the people of the country, the idea was spread that the Government acted deliberately and had a plan of harming its people. This idea became very dangerous for many people as some of them even became insane. It seems that this is what has happened in Timothy McVeigh’s case.
The connection between McVeigh’s actions and the ideology and activity by militia groups
Evaluating McVeigh’s commentaries as to the motivation of his actions a conclusion can be made that this young man became a victim of ideas spread by militia groups and questionable actions by the Government which provided a precedent for spreading such ideas (Jones and Israel 60). Young men tend to be overly subjected to the influence of confusing events and dangerous ideas connected to them. It happens quite often that they even lose their ability to have a clear way of thinking. When McVeigh was arrested and interrogated concerning what he did his confidence in the rightfulness and even legitimacy of his actions was mind-blowing. There was no doubt that the young man was out of his mind. Being interrogated concerning the victims among the civilians, McVeigh showed a reaction of a person whose mind was blocked and unable to adequately function (Linenthal 13). In his case, it became evident that the ideas spread by militia groups being in the pick of their popularity can appear to be very dangerous. As a result, a conclusion can be made that McVeigh not only became insane on the reason of one’s fears, but he was also affected by the activity and ideology of militia groups, and, thus, he was a part of this social movement.
Conclusion
Concluding on all the above-discussed information, it should be stated that the sad events of the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995, are more than a sorrow caused by an insane man Timothy McVeigh. A closer look at the details of this situation helps see that McVeigh was influenced by a dangerous ideology coming from a strong source. This source was a social movement called militia groups. The movement initially being a patriotic organization, under the influence of radically thinking people became dangerous and caused significant harm to the country. The main idea behind the actions of militia groups was to defend their constitutional right for bearing arms.
Works Cited
Jones, Stephen, and Peter Israel. Others Unknown: The Oklahoma City Bombing Case and Conspiracy. New York: PublicAffairs, 1998. Questia. Web.
Linenthal, Edward T. The Unfinished Bombing: Oklahoma City in American Memory. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Questia. Web.
Ottley, Ted. The Oklahoma City Bombing: Bad Day Dawning. Web. 2012.
Recently a heated debate about the ban of assault weapons has been going on, which made everyone re-evaluate the need for assault weapons in the households.
All assault weapons in possession of a civilian cause great danger to the life of the community. Each person carrying a gun must be professionally trained on how to operate it; otherwise, people around are exposed to danger. In the hands of an inexperienced or uneducated person, assault weapons may result in fatal incidents, which endangers the whole community. There are many examples of misconduct with assault guns that cause trauma or even death, and mass shootings are one of the most severe and dreadful examples. Only professionals must be allowed to carry deadly weapons regardless if they are semi-automatic or fully-automatic; in both cases, a gun is still a gun that exposes the surrounding to serious jeopardy. Many civilians are scared to be around people who carry guns in public places because it makes them feel unsafe due to the fact that one can never know what accident can happen in a moment. Assault weapons become a deadly instrument in the hands of a wrong person and can harm innocent people with no prior intentions of doing it, which is one justified reason why assault weapons must be banned.
Every civilians must rely on the full protection of the police. Police forces’ main goal is to protect the community by any means and keep people safe no matter what. Every citizen should realize that by keeping a dangerous assault weapon at home they put their friends, neighbours; moreover the whole community at risk. When in meantime hundreds of officers tirelessly work and put their life on the line for the purpose of keeping the neighborhood safe by all means. People must feel protected staying in their own homes without worrying about how fast they can run to the safe and pull out an assault weapon to shoot a potential invader to protect themselves. The law enforcement system reacts within minutes to any emergency, so there is no need for a civilian to hold an easily-accessed gun at home that may threaten the safety of others. Law enforcement exists to keep all people secure day and night, regardless of who they are or where they live. Every European country has a ban against assault weapons, and the crime rates are evidentially low than why it cannot be the same in the United States. If the police have to earn the trust of the Americans, let them do so, but no civilian must have an assault weapon in their possession for personal protection. Law enforcement’s main priority is the total security of every citizen.
For a decade from 1994 to 2004, there was an operative law that banned assault weapons. According to the article in New York Times, public mass shootings — which they define as “incidents in which a gunman killed at least six people in public”— significantly decreased during the time of the federal ban (Donohue & Boulouta, 2019). After 2004, when this particular ban was canceled, the amount of mass shootings throughout the country have been significantly increasing yearly along with possession of military weapons and high-capacity magazines. Without free access to the assault weapons, people are much less likely to possess it and, in consequence, fatally misconduct it. Moreover, people not mentally or physically qualified to possess fatal weapons would not be exposed to them. This fact proves that banning assault weapons impacts the safety of the community and decreases fatal shootings among them.
Work Cited
Donohue, J., & Boulouta, T. (2019). That Assault Weapon Ban? It Really Did Work. Web.
Failures are an inevitable part of the human experience, which has to be acknowledged and accounted for as such. Miscalculations and misconceptions will occur no matter how immaculate the initial pan might be, which is why it is essential to focus on deriving essential lessons from unfortunate experiences. Operation Anaconda and the endeavors at fighting terrorism in Afghanistan is, perhaps, one of the best-known examples of the U.S. military failures. Looking back at the failure of the U.S. operation in Afghanistan, one will realize that the poor organizational planning, which defined the misalignment of the Staffing, Direction, and Control processes, affected the combat strategy and defined the notorious outcome of the operation Anaconda, thus making it one of the U.S.’s most notorious failures.
In retrospect, the inability to perform decent preliminary research and ensure that the U.S. government is completely aware of the key factors that would allow implementing the operation flawlessly was one of the main causes of failure. Although the U.S. Army commander did have a plan in his mind, namely, the decision not to repeat the disaster that occurred during the siege of Tora Bora, the general lack of direction was evident in the management of Operation Anaconda. As Robinson (2018) worded it, “Strongmen’s militias can be more useful for immediate military exigencies than a new, weak army” (p. 12). Due to the inconsistencies in the planning process and the miscalculations made by the intelligence, the U.S. Army was not prepared properly for the challenges that it would face in Afghanistan, which led to the excruciating defeat. Even though the al-Qaeda forces suffered a nonetheless devastating loss in regard to their soldiers, resources, and positions in the fight, in general, the outcomes for the U.S. Army were truly devastating, causing it to retreat. Considering the staffing issues, the U.S. Army has been suffering from a significant lack of discipline and the arrangement of the troops. Moreover, the fact that the communication between the troops and the medical staff was mishandled deserves a mentioning as one of the major staffing failures (Welmer, 2019). As a result, of miscommunication, a range of soldiers were seriously wounded, and the U.S. lost a significant number of people to the Afghanistan conflict (Lansford, 2017). Therefore, the staffing issue as the direct result of the inability of the commanders o plan basic operations in Afghanistan led to the ultimate failure and defeat.
Similarly, the American Army obviously lacked direction in its actions in Afghanistan. Although the general sense of what had to be accomplished was present, the actual strategies for attaining the said goals were mostly underdeveloped. On the one hand, the use of video teleconferences as a practice that was considered innovative at the time was quite praiseworthy for its unique approach (McPherson, 2005). If it had been used properly, the specified device for maintaining control would have provided the U.S. Army with a substantial advantage over the Afghanistan troops, causing the American soldiers to communicate and collaborate better, thus aligning their actions more successfully (Robinson, 2018). However, even with the application of videoconferencing as the tool for keeping telecommunications consistent, the commanders failed to control the troops, causing the latter to find themselves in complete disarray within a certain amount of time after the U.S. Army was introduced to the Afghanistan environment (Robinson, 2018). Therefore, Operation Anaconda had huge planning failures that ultimately led to the collapse of the entire venture and the crushing defeat of the U.S. Army.
As a result, the control phase of the operation was largely botched, with the time constraints being the most difficult issue to address. Poo communication and the resulting inability to transfer clear directions to soldiers led to the inaccurate and often incorrect implementation of the initial plan. Moreover, the planning, control, and staffing concerns were doomed to fail due to the inconsistency between the newly developed Neo-Liberal philosophy of American society and the centralized views that the U.S. Army held (Kolenda, 2019). As a result, the planning process was disjoint, and the lack of staff members who could support the specified view was rather scarce.
The inability to perform operational planning accordingly and, thus, failing to build the basis for the Staffing, Direction, and Control processes defined the failure of the U.S. in Afghanistan due to the following complications in the combat situation. Therefore, the significance of consistency in planning, as well as the failure of intelligence to perform the assigned tasks, led to the mismanagement of key goals and the ultimate defeat. Therefore, Operation Anaconda has provided important, albeit bitter, lessons for the U.S. government to learn. Specifically, the importance of preliminary research and the following meticulous planning with the focus on every detail that may affect the implementation of the set goals, have to be at the forefront of operations and the process of joint planning. The described experience represented a very harsh lesson for the U.S. commandership since it pointed to the glaring problems with the execution of control over the actions of the troops, as well as the issues with communication and the staggering number of errors made during the planning process.
Reference List
Kolenda, C. D. (2019). Slow failure: Understanding America’s quagmire in Afghanistan. Journal of Strategic Studies, 42(7), 992-1014.
Lansford, T. (2017). A bitter harvest: US Foreign Policy and Afghanistan. New York, NY: Routledge.
McPherson, J. A. (2005). Operation Anaconda: Command and control through VTC. Washington, DC: Joint Military Operations Dept.
Robinson, C. D. (2018). What explains the failure of US army reconstruction in Afghanistan? Defense & Security Analysis, 34(3), 249-266.
Weimer, D. (2019). “It’s that difficult of a terrain”: Opium, development, and territoriality in US-Afghan Relations, 1940s–1970s. The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, 33(1), 113-144.
Staples Center, located in Los Angeles, CA, is one of the biggest multipurpose entertainment and sports facilities across the country. The building measures a total of almost 1 million square feet, with a height of 150 feet and a large arena within the facility (94×200 feet). For different sporting or entertainment events, the Staples Center arenas may seat up from 18,340 to 20,000 people. The lower bowl of the Staples Center features 2,500 club seats and two-thirds of the total number of seats. The upper and lower bowls are separated by three levels that contain 15 event suites and an overall of 160 luxury suites. The Staples Center is owned and operated by Anschutz Entertainment Group and the Arturo L.A. Arena Company (). The arena serves as the home venue for LA Clippers and LA Lakers of the National Basketball Association, LA Sparks of the Women’s National Basketball Association, and the LA Kings of the National Hockey League. On average, Staples Center hosts nearly 4 million guests per annum (with approximately 250 events).
Hospital Profile
As one of the largest public hospitals in the United States, Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center (LAC+USC) serves as the biggest care provider in Los Angeles County as well. This is a Level I trauma center that is located approximately 10 minutes from the Staples Center. Not only this hospital is one of the best facilities for the medically underserved population, but also a facility that takes care of one-third of trauma victims from the region (Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, 2020). The hospital features 600 beds and mostly focuses on the populations affected by AIDS and sickle-cell anemia. Los Angeles County Department of Health Services owns the LAC + USC. There is a full spectrum of emergency services that are provided to all types of patients (outpatient and inpatient). The approximate list of services provided by LAC+USC includes emergency, medical, surgical, obstetric, and psychiatric amenities. Across the Western region of the United States, LAC+USC is arguably the busiest public hospital that discharges approximately 40,000 inpatients per annum.
As for the emergency department located within the LAC+USC, it experiences more than 150,000 visits annually, which makes this care provision unit one of the most hectic across the globe. Across Los Angeles County, there are only three burn centers, and one of them is operated within the LAC+USC. Speaking of Southern California, the LAC+USC is one of the few hospitals where Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Units exist. In addition to all the benefits mentioned above, there is an increasingly high number of professional nurses that graduate from the Los Angeles County College of Nursing and Allied Health (Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, 2020). There are numerous experts in health care that support the Trauma Training Center for the US Navy, where medical workers gain more knowledge regarding how to treat even battlefield injuries. The closest police department is within five minutes, so both law enforcement and care provision teams could be able to respond to a terrorist attack promptly.
Law Enforcement Profile
As for the response system that is established in Los Angeles, the first important agency is the Coroner’s Special Operation Response Team (SORT). The latter contains additional units that specialize in weapons of mass destruction and continually train to establish a safe local environment and protect Los Angeles citizens from terrorist attacks. Another critical unit is bomb appraisal officers who have to monitor the surroundings for any suspicious activity or individuals. The current level of preparedness across different LAPD units is rather high, allowing it to handle multiple sites simultaneously and develop response plans that would only involve FBI agents or a SWAT team in extreme cases. Knowledgeable prevention of human fatalities and other casualties serves as the core objective pursued by LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department, 2020). Even though homeland security is a time-consuming, resource-intensive initiative, Los Angeles authorities recurrently invest in counter-terrorist activities.
The existing evidence proves a strong relationship between the state homeland security administrator and LAPD, which means that the information regarding potential attacks reaches law enforcement agencies rather quickly. Positive interactions between agencies could also contribute to the swiftness of a potential terrorist attack response because local approaches could be later translated into state-level initiatives (Abrahms & Gottfried, 2016). Knowing that LAPD was first organized as a counterterrorism unit, it may be safe to say that existing law enforcement agencies successfully respond to critical incidents. The level of preparedness to terrorist attacks across Los Angeles is exceptional, meaning that the Staples Center will be protected by a combination of the following factors: (a) trained workforce, (b) timely information exchange, and (c) a close-knit association of law enforcement agencies.
Description and Summary
The first law enforcement stakeholder that should be involved in the terrorist attack response is LAPD. Knowing that there is a Counterterrorism and Criminal Intelligence Bureau that functions as a collection, analysis, and dissemination instrument, it may be safe to say that its influence on an incident response would be massive. On the other hand, there is a specialized Human Source Development Unit that complements the Counterterrorism and Criminal Intelligence Bureau and creates more opportunities to hire experienced informants and help them infiltrate terrorist networks. An adequate response to a potential terrorist attack also requires LAPD to contact Terrorism Liaison Offices and disclose attack plots before the latter becomes a reality (Coaffee, 2016; Cui et al., 2016). The inherent connection between gangs, mafia members, and extremists makes it easier to define when and how a potential attack could damage the Staples Center. One of the main benefits of the Los Angeles area is that there is an increased willingness to collaborate displayed by local law enforcement agents who may easily communicate their concerns to regional, state, and federal law enforcement representatives in the case of an emergency.
From the present information on law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles, it may be concluded that there are relatively high standards promoted within the Los Angeles area that significantly reduce the probability of an incorrect response to a terrorist attack. Given that all law enforcement agents are trained together, they all gather more insight into different terrorist threats and develop an understanding of how to react and collaborate in the case where terror strikes. There may be numerous events altering the probable response to an attack, which also means that LAPD could avoid confusion by working out attack scenarios in advance. Based on the existing evidence, law enforcement agencies could join their efforts and come up with specialized training sessions intended to help law enforcement officers realize their responsibilities and potential ways of responding to the threat. Bomb appraisal officers, for example, would have to spot concealed bombs or suspicious vehicles that could transport explosives. While there is a bomb squad in LAPD, bomb appraisal officers could react to the prospective danger much quicker. These individuals are also more perspective than their police bomb squad counterparts, which helps them to disrupt common local operations.
References
Abrahms, M., & Gottfried, M. S. (2016). Does terrorism pay? An empirical analysis. Terrorism and Political Violence, 28(1), 72-89.
Coaffee, J. (2016). Terrorism, risk and the global city: Towards urban resilience. Routledge.
Cui, J., Rosoff, H., & John, R. S. (2016). Cumulative response to sequences of terror attacks varying in frequency and trajectory. Risk Analysis, 36(12), 2272-2284.
Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. (2020). LAC+USC. Web.
Los Angeles Police Department. (2020). Los Angeles Police Department. Web.
STAPLES Center. (2020). General information & FAQ | STAPLES Center. Web.