In seven pages this paper discusses the attacks upon the U.S. by al Qaeda and Israel by the Palestinians in a consideration of the question 'To what extent is terrorism an effective and legitimate mechanism of power?' Ten sources are cited in the bibliography.
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going on in the neighborhood. People are terrorized in their own homes by abusive spouses, parents, children or other relatives. These acts fall under the general category of criminal terrorism.
When the topic of terrorism is brought up, we mostly forget about criminal terrorism because pathological political terrorism is so devastating. Furthermore, according to Baudrillard, "terrorism is like a virus,
it is everywhere. . . . the system is helpless against terrorism, which is structured like a virus -- as though any system of domination fosters its own anti-system, its
own disintegration -- against this almost automatic reversal of its own power" (2001, p. 134). Terrorism is immoral and evil (Baudrillard, 2001). This is true of any type of
terrorism, criminal and/or pathological. The U.S. Department of Defense defines terrorism as: "the calculated use of violence or the threat of violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or
to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological" (Terrorism Research Center, 2002). White explains: "Terrorism is an effort to achieve results
in cases of political and criminal terrorism; in pathological terrorism, the terrorism becomes an end in itself" (2002). Students of terrorism classify the motives into three general categories: cultural, rational
and psychological (Terrorism Research Center, 2002). Interestingly, when the motivation is psychological, when terrorist groups begin to approach their goal, they redefine the goal because to be successful eliminates their
reason for being (Terrorism Research Center, 2002). This is an example of terrorism for terrorisms sake. Religion is the most volatile of all cultural motivations because it is based on
deeply-held beliefs (Terrorism Research Center, 2002). A threat to ones religion puts the present at risk and also puts ones cultural past and future at risk (Terrorism Research Center, 2002).