Topic 223

Rebel forces and terrorist allies against the empire use of IT by Alex Young

In this generation, terrorism is a huge influence upon people’s lives and news about suicide bombers and clashes with terrorists occur almost everyday. With the US and other countries being involved in the struggle in Iraq and Afghanistan, this terrorist fight is a global fight now.

Although many of the attacks usually occur in Iraq and Afghanistan, there has been major attacks in countries such as England, Australia and the Phillipines. Some of the conflicts that are involved such as in the Phillipines, has been going on for at least 20 years with different guerrilla groups trying to control certain parts of the Phillipines. Also, certain African countries such as Sudan has had major civil war within the country and now it is a huge mess there but no country has taken strong stance on how they should help the innocent Sudanese people.

Some terrorists use technology in order to locate exactly where they want the attack to occur. For example, some terrorist groups may have hidden video cameras installed in order to observe very carefully and to carry out the attack accordingly. Although the technology used is not as sophisticated as other countries such as the US, it does unleash enough destruction to create chaos in places such as Iraq.

Last summer, there was a small war between Israel and Hezbollah. It all started when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers near the border of the two countries and in retaliation, surprised Hezbollah and the country of Lebanon as full-scale aerial bombardment was done by Israel for a couple days. This created chaos among the civilians because it came as a complete surprise and there were still foreigners still living in Lebanon at the time Israel was attacking.

With the help of technology, the US military sent ships to carry the American people living in Lebanon to escape the clash between Israel and Hezbollah and thus rescued many Americans living in Lebanon. Thankfully through the UN, there was a resolution that was passed to end the war and as long as Israel and Hezbollah does not fire weapons and mortars with each other, both countries will be in peace.

Other ways technology has somewhat influenced the terrorists is that in Iraq, terrorists plant home-made bombs underneath the ground to specifically target military convoys such as Tanks or to kill soldiers. Also with technology the people fighting the terrorists have a better sense of where to strike with satellite images and aerial images through the work of a helicopter or a jet. The one superiority the terrorists don’t have is that they can’t use aerial attacks because they don’t have any jets so they can’t shoot down American tanks through a helicopter or whatever it may be.

Through technology, terrorists are able to post executions on the internet and also record images of people in hostage and the terrorists demanding what they want in order to free the hostage. The internet is also used to try to hire new terrorists so technology does indeed play a huge role in terrorism.

With new technology being created every day, it is a scary thought that what the terrorists will have at their disposal in terms of what and how they carry out the attacks. Bombs will probably be even bigger and deadlier and RPG’s will be more deadly as well. Although terrorist equipment may improve, the US and other countries fighting the terrorists will improve as well so hopefully, they know how to combat and protect the soldiers who are in the battlefield with terrorists constantly adapting and changing their tactics.

Or if you can't destroy your enemy sometimes you can negotiate a settlement as the Israelis have done from time to time.