Terrorism in the Modern World

A preacher once said, “When we are too focused, we are blinded by the injustice of our decisions and the impact of our actions.

We become blind to the sufferings of the people and the wide spread of poverty among us.” When we are too focused, we are not able to see beyond the sphere or we are opaque to the reality. We prefer to settle on the crumbs on our table without the creativity to seek for the real meal. Koistinen, the author of Arsenal of World War II, claims that privatization of the state military is not only inducing corruption but also deteriorating national security.The engagement of industry and civilian parties in the military causes the elimination of the traditional functions and roles of the military.

They are the insurance for national security. Before discussion terrorism in the modern world, it may be good to discuss the roles and functions of the traditional military. As a guaranteed insurance to national security, the traditional functions and roles of the military are national security, research and development (associated with national security), provision of goods and services which the market cannot supply, and building the state through the establishment of civilian governance.However, marketization has caused the military to loose its status quo while its roles and functions have been privatized. Everything in the market is valued by each dollar it adds to revenue or profits.

So is the case of the marketization of the state military. In business term, every dollar spend is measured by 1000 times profit anticipated. If you ask the youths or the adults today, “What are the functions of the military?” Their response would be “For war...

they are bred for war.” War is a business and it should be created in order to generate profit. If there is no car to take you from one place to another, create one and make money. If there is no war, create one so you can make money.

Unfortunately, the money comes from the public whose majority is either arrogance or ignorance. The word “terrorism” or “terrorists” seems like a foreign language to the world population. After the incident of the September 11, 2000, “terrorists” were blamed as the master minded actors in this tragedy, especially Osama Bin Ladin. The “terrorism” is becoming more and more familiar and is getting to become popular and more popular. The word “terrorism” itself means, according to Random House Webster’s dictionary, “the use of violence to intimidate or coerce especially for political purposes; and “terror” means intense fear, a person or thing that causes such fear.

Americans have fallen into the spell of intense fear. It takes an act of terrorism to create intense fear and budget approval to fight terrorism.After this incident, a professor who teaches Islamic studies at Berkley University, the first breed of the McGill University Islamic studies intended for western university professors so that they will continue Islamic studies at university where they are teaching, said that Islam is a good religion if you want to control people. Though Islam is against communism, there is no difference between the Islamic methodology and communist methodology. The spread of the teachings is communized. In his review of the Earthscan Reader on NGO management, Bangari says that with continuous pressure for effective management, NGOs are transforming themselves as new emerging business leaders in today’s world.

Foreign NGOs are taking more participatory actions to have greater access in domestic political frames and debates even though they are rarely successful as advocacy groups. And Bangari (2003) warns that “beyond the ethical and moral reasons” a nation should be aware that India’s experience of harnessing on human rights organizations and NGOs is the reason of its defeat during Kashmir war in early 1990. Human rights have become one of the greatest social global issues. Most human rights organizations and NGOs often propose political advocacy by emphasizing cooperative, concurrent, disassociated, and competitive. Kant ponders the irony of human desires – one who promotes and upholds equality and superiority could also be the one who induces inequality, creates social segregation and marginalization; one who pursues happiness could also be the one who trumps morality; and one who could also promote radical evil.

This explains how the modern terrorist organization is formed. It is founded as nongovernmental organization and is spread along the network. And that makes it difficult to eliminate either by modern or traditional military who tend to use the exact tactical combat strategies. According to Safonov, the modern terrorist organizations have some essential characteristics. They are self-sufficient and viable along the networks, have extensive geographic base because with nongovernmental organization structure, they can easily mobile the members and arouse the communities sense of belonging to a group whom they believe in as their protector. They also have wide scope or hybrid system of decision maker, which is very significant, said Safonov, as soon as the upper level of the group is “knocked out, the process moved down to the middle level and therefore the circle of persons making decisions expanded substantially.

”They “have a common strategic goal but diverse tactics.” They are ideologically related and sometimes are completely unrelated in structures but can move along the networks as a strategy or tactics to defeat their target. They also have “effectively turned into a trademark, a kind of a commercial brand that can be either licensed or pirated” and benefit both the owner and the business. From North America foreign policy point of view, we can analyze this network represent the pioneers.They open the door for the business of war to be established as an enterprise in a country such as in Afghanistan.

The civil war in Afghanistan was about to subside when the military decided that they are coming with businesses. Consequently, more insurgents appeared and the battle is becoming more intense. The battle becomes a combination of war of political and religious power, guns trade, and commercialization of poppies industry – from production to national trade and exporting to foreign countries, mainly the US.Unfortunately, the insurgents are foreign trained civilian military. Khan describes that “many of the soldiers on the battlefield will not be part of the U.

S. military. Rather, they will be civilians employed by private military companies (PMCs). PMCs were instrumental in providing both operational and logistical support in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan, and have been used by the U.S government to engage in regional and ethnic conflicts across the globe, from Bosnia to Sierra Leone to Colombia. Unlike traditional defense manufacturers, PMCs are primarily service providers of hi-tech warfare, including communications and intelligence, logistical support and battlefield training and planning.

” Garson (2006) states that major crimes activities today are computer and IT related.The terrorism networks are also very advanced in information technology system and application. Religion is one of the non-governmental organization methodologies to encourage community participation. So is the case in modern terrorist organizations.

However, what is dangerous about the structure of terrorism network organization is they “operate as corporate entities but very danger” (Ibid) as they combine criminal activities and business. Another distinguishing characteristic of modern terrorist organization is that they combine criminal activities and terrorist networks.They are well trained in the battle fields and sophisticated in the use of technology. From political administrative and management point of view, Shafritz & Russell (2000) claim the nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations are the most capitalists in our economic system. In the military field, they are the fiercest institutions.

They combine religious orthodoxy, business, and political power to control the field. If the nonprofit and non-governmental organizations receive funding from government grants and public and private contributions, the nonprofit terrorist organizations also receive funding from public grants and corporate contribution whose corporations are none other than the private military companies themselves.After the privatization of the Pentagon, under the rule of Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, the first contract of $3.9 million went to Kellog and Brown and Root services – a profit contractor and on-governmental organization - a perfect combination of combat military service and logistic agency. However, privatization causes corruption, said Shafritz & Russell (2000). Today, the line between military and nonprofit logistic agency is blurring.

Corruption and fraud scandals are emerging in the department and the Pentagon. Khan describes that “soldiers on the battlefield will not be part of the US military.Rather, they will be civilians employed by private military companies.” Center of Public Integrity’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reported that there are 90 private military companies that have operated in 110 countries worldwide. The increasing usage of the private military, who are often have less and poor training, is due to massive reduction in the military funding and recruitment and training of personnel.

Since 1994, the US Defense Department has signed 3,106 contract with private military companies valued at more than $300 billion. More than 2,700 of these contracts are signed between Kellog Brrown and Root, a subsidiary firm of Hillaburton Corporation which was previously owned by Dick Cheney, and Booz Allen Hamilton, a Virginia-based management technology consulting firm.These firms have access to information from the Pentagon. Then you are wondering why these terrorist groups are very sophisticated in technology and they know information about what other country such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran or Somalia have but information legit enough to establish a war? The poor Islamic radical countries are becoming the game field of these two forces: for–profit military and the non-governmental organization military whose members are known as the “jihadis.” It is billion dollars business industry.

These modern terrorist groups are not only being backed by political actors but also they are guaranteed funded through market competition. Like the communist ideology, the Berkley professor said, Islam is a methodology of control.The US news and World Report estimate that between 2001 and 2002, US Army contracted out between 124,000 and 605,000 persons as private military who are trained by retired generals. In countries such as Thailand, the Philippines, Venezuela, or Israel, majority trainers of the civilian military are the US military exodus. While the US is recruiting new reservists to serve as combatants in the field, private military and the NGOs are recruiting civilians as their combatants. They pose as real military and tend to use the city streets as their medium of field training.

Like International Labor Trade, International Traffic in Arms Regulation Law allows private military companies to “sell their services abroad through the Defense Foreign Military Sales program, under which the Pentagon pays the contractor for services offered to a foreign government.Many of the private military contractors are owned by big companies such as, besides Kellogs Brown & Root and Halliburton, Fortune 500. once knows as the mercenaries, Deborah Avant, an associate professor of political science and international affairs at George Town University, explains that these private military would use these terrorist organizations to help it to preserve war and maintain long-term market share and increase the trend in order to provide the legitimate military functions and services even to replace the traditional military. Like the terrorist groups, private military also forms the International Peace Operations Associations.

Besides the private military contractors who operate for profits and there are also the non-profit military who operates like the non-governmental organizations. Generally, they accompany the for-profit military establishment as the logistics but often, they are related. From political administrative and management point of view, Shafritz & Russell (2000) claim the nonprofit or non-governmental organizations are the most capitalist in our economic system; and they are funded through government grants and private or corporate donations. In the military field, they are the fiercest institutions. They combine religious orthodoxy, business, and political power to control and they are funded through corporate donations. Free market claims competition as the key to efficiency, but the Kantian Theory of Corruption states that competition establishes radical evil.

One must use evil to outdo the others or to make him or herself superior to the others.Ever wonder why the Muslim society is being blamed as the source of radical evil? It may be because they are too focused to obedience to God that they are ignorant to the reality. Americans are also too ignorant because they are too focused; they are spelled bounded by American hypnotism or terrorist attacks and intensively feared by their own decisions for free market and liberal society.