Security issue on terrorism

When it comes to the word terrorism,what is it? Terrorism is a sudden attack by a small group of people called terrorist that wanted to show their feeling or to get what they want through violent act,the reason why they attack could be related to political issues, religious issues, races issues, economics issues and so on.Terrorist used to attack by bombings and killing.

How could the word significant be define? Significant is something more serious, more obvious or more deadly in particular sense and it’s depending to the situation and circumstances.

The reason why terrorism has become a more significant security issues is because Terrorist’s attacks are stronger (effective) as states do not have strong body to attack like other states.

For example, September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, bali bombings On 10 September 1973, a Provisional IRA bomb exploded in the booking hall at 12.24 pm, causing extensive damage and injuring six people, some seriously. The 3lb (1.4kg) device was thrown without warning into the station by a youth who escaped into the crowd and was not caught.

Other than that, Terrorist are more extreme and radical in nature, willing to attack and provoke superpower states. They are willing to attack strong nation states like US, China etc etc. Example, September 11th.

Besides that,Terrorist can attack without its own state’s approval, making it difficult for other states or UN to stop but in the other hand States have reasonable and clear reason why they attack; they attack for benefits and welfare of their sovereignty or welfare of people. Terrorist attacks are less sanely motivated.This case could be refer in the September 11th’s tragedy.

Terrorist does not have rules of engagement not to attack civilians but in the other hand Legit army have rules of engagement to follow (not to attack unharmed civilians), but terrorist do not have it any ROE such as the Bali Bombing, Terrorist groups are also hard to contact and negotiate with unlike other threats. After the terrorists attack, they could escape to other place and continue their life, they might also have the second attack, it’s either they attack the same place or not.

Next, Terrorists do not need sanction from the UN to do anything they just do it, making them unpredictable such as the September 11th incident, they not need to inform others that they are going to attack, but yet, they attacks on the PWC suddenly and get media attention, this makes terrorism dangerous.

Besides that, Terrorists create anxiety as anyone could be terrorists. They are hard to identify.

Normal people could be terrorist, but they do not have a ‘special’ look telling that they are terrorist, they could but at anywhere and anyone.

Due to attack, terrorist’s forces war to break out between states. If a group of terrorist from Iraq attack PWC in US, and they just escape to another country, When US forced Iraq to take imprison the members of Al-Qaeda, but Iraq could ‘nt get Al-Qaeda, then there’s will be a conflict between these 2 nations, It might be a war between Iraq and US.

Terrorist are dangerous because their attacks might have run wilder around one or two bombings or attack daily and Since the demise of USSR, terrorism has been wilder such as the Mumbai attack in 2008 were more than ten coordinated shooting and bombing attacks by Muslim terrorists from Pakistan. This attack kills at least 173 and 308 people injured.

Other that the cases mention above, the list below shows the cases of terrorism attacks. Somalian pirate’s raid ,They attack ships not for any political gains or religious reasons but rather for financial problems. As of May 2, 2009, the pirates were reported to be holding 17 ships and around 300 crews.

2003 Marriott Hotel Bombings

The 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing occurred on 5 August 2003 in Mega Kuningan, South Jakarta, Indonesia. A suicide bomber detonated a car bomb outside the lobby of the JW Marriott Hotel, killing twelve people and injuring 150. All those killed were Indonesian with the exception of one Dutch businessman, one Danish, and two Chinese tourists. The hotel was viewed as a Western symbol, and had been used by the United States embassy for various events. The hotel was closed for five weeks and reopened to the public on 8 September.

2004 Australian embassy bombing

The 2004 Australian embassy bombing took place on 9 September 2004 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Madrid Train Bombings

The Madrid train bombings consisted of a series of coordinated bombings against the Cercanías (commuter train) system of Madrid, Spain on the morning of 11 March 2004 (three days before Spain’s general elections), killing 191 people and wounding 1,800. The official investigation by the Spanish Judiciary determined the attacks were directed by a al-Qaeda-inspired terrorist cell although no direct al-Qaeda participation has been established. Spanish miners who did not carry out the attacks but who sold the explosives to the terrorists were also arrested.

Besides that,we also have the cases of 2010 Moscow Metro Bombings , TheMay 1998 riots in Indonesia, Pakistani state terrorism, State terrorism by Iran and State terrorism and Russia.

• USSR= TheUnion of Soviet Socialist Republics(USSR) was aconstitutionallysocialist statethat existed inEurasiafrom 1922 to 1991.
• ROE= Rules of Engagement = inmilitaryorpoliceoperations, therules of engagement(ROE) determine when, where, and how force shall be used. Such rules are both general and specific, and there have been large variations between cultures throughout history.

Is there any more significant issues in Security issues?

Terrorism is a significant issue in security issue, but there are more issues that serious than Terrorism. Terrorists are active, but they are not more dangerous as states. States have WMDs, but terrorists often don’t.

And the food security. China is becoming a developed country. Around the world, there are many states that are purchasing products (daily needs ) from China such as clothes, accessories, food and so on. The case of the Melamine incident causes people from many states avoid for buying the food products from china such as milk candies. Especially milk, in November 2008 China reported an estimated there are 300,000 victims causes by this Melamine incident ,six infants dying fromkidney stonesand otherkidney damage, and a further 860 babies hospitalized. We can see that many babies suffered from kidney problems after they took the milk powder. An infant still have many years to go, how could they survive in their future? This has affected the next generation.

Besides that, Health issue is also concerning in security issue such as the SARS incident and H1N1 incident. Health issue can be define as problems concerning health which can lead to massive outbreaks that harms hundreds or thousands of lives. More than 5,300 SARS infections have been reported at the end of April 2003 in more than 20 countries so far, the most SARS cases are in China. The global death toll is at least 400, so far and the number climbs. The number of suspected and infected cases of SARS is tiny so far, compared to the 3 million people who died of AIDS last year, the danger of the SARS epidemic is significant. For H1N1, Although most cases are mild, these epidemics still cause severe illness in 3-5 million people and 250,000-500,000 deaths worldwide. On average 41,400 people die each year in theUnited Statesbased on data collected between 1979 and 2001.The latesr report from the CDC estimates that in the United States alone, as of March 2010, there had been “about 12,000” deaths caused by swine flu. On January 18, 2010, the WHO Director-General also said the pandemic appeared to be easing in the northern hemisphere but could still cause infections until winter ends in April, and that it was too soon to say what would happen once the southern hemisphere enters winter and the virus becomes more infectious.Currently, there are 14,286 confirmed deaths worldwide. This figure is a sum of confirmed deaths reported by national authorities.

Third, Natural disasters are also significant in security issue.Terrorism actions may be dangerous and claim dozens of lives, but natural disasters claims thousands or millions of lives. The weather nowadays changes very quickly,makes that natural disasters are more unpredictable and even more impossible to stop than terrorism such as Haiti earthquake, China Sze Quan 512 earthquake, Tzunami in Southeast Asia and Chille, floods in China Yellow River, Lahar in Tangiwai. Terrorists attack can be recovered from any of their attack less significant, natural disaster problems are more dangerous and bring more problems because natural disaster causes plagues, massive infrastructure damages and so on.

Lahar is volcanic mudflow or landslide. This happened in 1953 Tangiwai disaster caused by lahar and in 1958,the Amero tragedy caused the town of Amero was buried and an estimated of 23,000 people were killed.

Floods is also a serious security issue as in 1931, the great flood at Huang He caused death between 200,000 to 4,000,000 in China.

Although issues caused by terrorism is worrying, security issues caused by natural disasters are more complex to deal with as these events are at most, completely unpredictable and there are no ways that the state can deal with the threat unlike terrorism.

Conclusion

It still remains difficult to say whether or not terrorism is the most significant or a more significant threat in security issues nowadays. This is because the security issues faced by one nation state may differ from the ones being faced by other nation states. Yes, globally, terrorism is a growing threat in security issues, however, due to globalization, and the rapid destruction of the environment caused by man, so is health and natural disaster issues as well.

However, to make a sweeping statement to say that terrorism threats affect the whole world is difficult to say. Security issues faced in Malaysia may differ from security issues faced in the United States or even Africa. In a nutshell, terrorism is becoming a more significant security issue in the certain nation states but not in the whole world as there are other more significant issues that are out there as well.