An American philosopher named George Santayana once accurately and interestingly stated: “Those who cannot remember the lessons of the past are condemned to repeat it” (Lessons of VN Packet). With this same philosophical idea proposed by George Santayana, the study of our nation’s history and foreign policy efforts should be used as a lesson to guide any future behavior on how the United States should deal with the threat ISIS presents because of the clear thread that exists between the past and present. The same gap of communication and lack of understanding of different cultures, values and histories that brought destruction and instability during the Philippines-American War and Vietnam War, gave birth to the Islamic State because of an …show more content…
In an article titled “America Can’t Do Much About ISIS” published by The Atlantic, the author reveals the importance to reduce poverty because it limits people’s desires to do extreme and radical things: “The greater the misery among dispossessed, poorly housed, poorly fed populations, the greater the anger that can fuel terrorism and the less prone such populations and expatriate communities in the West will be to assist Western counterterrorism efforts” (http://tinyurl.com/zex46xj). The author makes the interesting point that “the anger that can fuel [the] terrorism [ISIS operates upon]” is brought by the “misery” of “dispossessed, poorly housed, poorly fed populations.” In this way, terrorism is a source of poverty because it forces people to act out their hopelessness and desperation through violent means. Thus, as a way to get rid of ISIS, a community many people join because of the financial stability it offers them, humanitarian efforts must be implemented to relieve the hardships of these people’s lives. Furthermore, in wars against terrorism, violence is not only present on the battlefield, but rather it spreads to communities of innocent families. Thus, the United States should look to provide support to neighboring countries, Iraq, Jordan, and Turkey, as a way to assist regional powers in providing “reasonable conditions for refugees” (http://tinyurl.com/zex46xj). In conjunction, these two policies offer the best possibilities for US aid in the region because they strike the foundation of the terrorist organization, and do not repeat the mistake of undermining the culture, value and history of a nation as was true during the Philippines-American and Vietnam wars. Importantly, this
Krueger, A. B., & Maleckova, J. (2003). Education, Poverty and Terrorism: Is There a Causal Connection?. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 17(4), 119-44
In Northern Kenya a small village of Sudanese refugees have made a makeshift village, which has served as their permanent housing for the past twenty years. This village displays the kind of poverty that is predictably featured in Time Magazine on a semi-regular basis: mud walls are adorned by straw roofs, ribs can be easily counted on shirtless bodies, flour is a resource precious enough to be rationed, and a formidable desert can be seen in all directions. What do you see when you look at this village? Do you see a primitive society, struggling to survive in a world that has long made struggling for survival antiquated, do you see the cost of western colonialism, do you see a people deprived of the dignity of humanity, do you just
As seen by the terrorist attacks of September 11th and afterwards this is not an easy approach, if even possible, and it asks for a unreserved commitment, the clear definition of interests within the international system, it asks for the use of force if necessary as well as the clear distinction when not, and it asks for a transformation of institutions and policies. Since this was not done early on, the examples provide the reasons of failure as well as a demonstration of a slow learning process in U.S. foreign Policy.
Another important way, not entirely unrelated, of interpreting what transpired on 9/11 is to explain the attack of Islamic extremists on the United States of America as a manifestation of a “clash of civilizations.” At the center of this way of looking at these unprecedented events has been an article and book both authored by the noted Harvard professor of political science, Samuel P.
Events that capture the entire world’s attention are few and far between. Fighting wars normally occurs between acknowledged enemies. In the war against terrorism, most notably, the war against Al-Qaeda, the enemy is unknown. One is not the enemy of the United States of America by virtue of one’s ethnic heritage. A Muslim is not a hidden enemy simply because he is Muslim. A Muslim does however become the enemy when he targets the world as a member of Al-Qaeda, the vision of one man. He was an intelligent and educated man who came from wealth and high esteem, who, guided by his faith, through radicalization, exile from homeland, and anti-western sentiments, built the terrorist organization known as Al- Qaeda. His name was Osama bin Laden.
Due in part to its tumultuous past, sub-Saharan Africa is a region of the world that is stricken with war, famine, and poverty. Many people in richer parts of the world, including North America and Europe, view helping the people who inhabit this part of the world as their duty and obligation. Both non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and governmental organizations such as the United Nations (UN) alike send humanitarian aid to sub-Saharan Africa. While this aid helps countless individuals and their families, humanitarian aid in sub-Saharan Africa fuels further conflict and enables violent groups, undermining the goals of the aid itself.
The continuing successful and attempted terrorist attacks in the USA and the endless wars and conflicts in which we are involved are a manifestation of political, economical and imperialistic failures in Arab lands. This was supported by Western society with the United States as the largest of powers. Instability, oppression, poverty and political alienation that the citizens of many Islamic-Arab nations experienced within the last hundred years have led to major hatred of the United States by the people of many Arab nations. These sources of hatred can be viewed as remote causes of the endless terror attacks and conflicts around the globe. Through the analysis of these causes, it is possible to find ways to avoid such incidents of terror by solving the problem at the source.
On November 13th, 2015 the world was shocked to discover that terrorists had attacked Paris, however in the latest string of terrorist attacks one must pose the question of whom terrorism impacts the most. Traditionally, in terrorism the victim is the group or region in which the attack is target. Recently, we have seen a large shift in the brunt of the backlash being placed toward minority religions that are simply blemished by small groups of extremists, thus painting an unjust image of the religion entirely. In the case of the Paris attacks, the extremist group, ISIS, has showcased views drastically different than a majority of Muslims, yet the media and millions of people globally have created the misconception that such an anomalistic
Relative deprivation theory is a helpful model for understanding the roots of terrorism in Peru. Various terrorist groups arose out of the failed leftist political parties who were unable to raise the living standards for the native Peruvians. The founders of these movements were from the middle class and wanted justice for the poor. Peru was still a mostly primitive society in the middle of the 20th century, with only the 0.1% elite classes controlling 60% the arable land, and the poor performing unskilled tasks in service of the hacienda owners (Osborn, 2010). In 1...
The displaced women have seen their husbands and relatives being killed, their properties being grabbed by the assaulters and high levels of unemployment(Salah et al., 2013). The situation is worse for the disabled women, the elderly, chronically ill women and the widows, as they cannot manage to care for their families (Musa and Hamid,
America started by setting up refugee camps, to relocate the Lost Boys within its own cities and was able to change the lives of thousands of boys who endured war, defeat, hurt and fear all through their childhoods. The significance of America’s involvement is emphasized in each source because it was an essential aid, support and hope for the Lost Boys of Sudan. Without America these lost boys may never have been discovered by the
Samuel Butler once said, “Look before you leap for as you sow, ye are like to reap.” This statement has never been so correct until this political cartoon, Escaped, by Petar Pismestrovic revealed the cause of the war against ISIS. If the United States did not meddle with the Middle East in the past, they would not have to “reap” the ISIS of today. Although people can say that if we had not intervened in the Middle East, it would have been more chaotic than it would currently. However, that is incorrect because ISIS was formed out of hate for other divisions of the religion and other religions in general. The United States entering the Middle East was the trigger that set the fires of war in the region. Providing weapons to the Iraqi military, the United States caused a chain of events that would later form ISIS. Petar Pismestrovic's political cartoon effectively shows that the United States was really the ones in the wrong and the Middle East is not fully responsible for this mess. Using symbolism and the emotions of a person, Petar successfully shows that the United States is currently facing the wrongs of their previous presidents.
...on, the decay of the Country’s political infrastructure, and the growing support of terrorist organizations in the region, are all systematic results of the effects of poverty. In conclusion Yemen must combat its health problem with both preemptive and reactive measures. Yemen must find common ground amongst its various political factions and unify politically to develop a truly governing nation. Yemen must also irradiate all terrorist factions in the region in order to prevent future recruitment into terrorist organizations. These measures are necessary to ensure that the effects of poverty on the people of Yemen are mitigated and minimal. This can only be achieved through the continuation of outside financial, medical, and political assistance from its neighboring countries in the region as well as the support of counter-terrorist organizations worldwide.
In conclusion, Huntington's approach of outlining the cultural differences between the West and Islam doesn't entirely explain the present world Jihadist terrorism and response of the US and its allies to it. The inclination of his paradigm is that one culture must win and another must lose. His hypothesis thus promotes political actors, policy makers and citizens to understand cultural dissimilarities as devastating and to support such differences. Consequently, his civilizations approach may not provide a standard paradigm, but it may add to realist and liberal approaches to explain international relations. – 3
Human beings are willing to kill each other for the simplest amounts, imagine what they would do for all the money in the world. With this can occur an economic discrimination, which is based on economic factor. These factors can include job availability, wages, the prices and/or availability of goods and services, and the amount of capital investment. The average American doesn’t realize how good they have it in life, being able to sleep in bed, eat warmed cooked meals, and even spend money on needless things. There are homeless people all over the world being discriminated on, this very second, because of their economic status. But us, as humans don’t understand the suffering they encounter until it happens to us. We would rather sit there and donate to a homeless person wanting drugs and alcohol, rather than a begging for help to feed their family. Until we find the love and care to help the people in need our world peace is slowly drifting away from