Identifying the Enemy in a War Against Terrorism :: September 11 Terrorism Essays

Identifying the Enemy in a War Against Terrorism   gazump In the good old days, it calculateed kindred such an easy undertaking to identify and give a face to who were your friends and foes at time of war, veritable(a) at the risk of racial and cultural stereotyping. We argon finding that it is actually difficult to be at war with a concept like international terrorism beca accustom we also must give it a face.   During earth War II an bind was published in the December 22, 1941 income tax return of Life magazine titled A Handbook for Americans.  A portion of the handbook detailed ways that Americans could tell a Jap from a Chinese. I found these stereotypes to be quite ridiculous but the article underscores that there are some jobs of mobilizing a society for war, whether it is against Japan in 1941 or against international terrorism in 2001.   One problem that would seem the easiest to solve is How do you identify friend from foe? Another problem is Ho w not to lose friends and alienate bystanders who might get caught in the pith in the process of waging war on ones foes? The nature of terrorism makes both(prenominal) tasks difficult.   In a recent book on 21st degree centigrade terrorism, Cindy Combs notes that terrorism is a synthesis of war and theatre a dramatization of violence which is perpetrated on innocent victims and played before an audience in the hope of creating a mood of fear without apology or compunction for political purposes. Terrorism is therefore by its nature a hugger-mugger activity carried out by actors operating in the shadows of societies. Who are the individuals and groups who commit this tactic? What would a profile look like of todays typical terrorist? We distinguish that they are young - having in some cases been recruited in secondary schools. They are both men and women who have less formal education and family riches than their counterparts in the 1960s. More importantly, in confronti ng them we know that they engage in dehumanizing their victims - victims do not have an individual face, nor are they parents or husbands or wives - they are simply the enemy. Coupled with this tendency to engage in what one noteworthy social psychologist calls black and white thinking, todays terrorist commits to the abandonment of all restraints on the use of violence.