This essay analyzes the elements of domestic and foreign terrorism in the US using specific examples of the Al-Qaeda, the Right and Left-Wing groups, the Army of God, and the Sovereign Citizen terrorist groups. This analysis is a useful approach to understanding the organizational layout of the groups as well as their abilities to carry out attacks. The writing finds that foreign terrorism differs from domestic one both in organization and in the abilities to attack. Specifically, while the Al-Qaeda has a rigid and complex organizational structure with the ability to attack civilians and militaries worldwide, the rest of the militia groups have weaker organizational layouts and can only attack citizens in the US.
The Al-Qaeda is one of the largest and strongest organized militia groups now under the leadership of Ayman al-Zahawri who succeeded Osama bin Laden. The group is on organized militia group of the Sunni Islamist group that was founded in 1988 by its former leader, bin Laden, to deter the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union in the 1980s (Gunaratna and Oreg, 2010). The group has been operational for a long time since that moment and now operates in different locations around the world such as in Iraq, Egypt, and Pakistan. While the militia group has a centralized system of management, it is noteworthy that each of the different segments of the group has a different leadership and that the overall leader only coordinates issues that concern the whole group such as financing and major terror attacks. The group has infiltrated most parts of the Middle East and the rest of the Muslim world, but their abilities to attack are not confined to such regions. In specificity, the group can attack militaries and civilians worldwide, and it has been prominent of its September 11 attacks on the US and other attacks such as in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 (Gunaratna and Oreg, 2010). The training manual of this group defines their mission to attack anyone who opposes them or their ideologies through bombings and shooting. The members of the group are therefore referred to as soldiers.
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Contrarily, the Sovereign Citizen refers to a loosely organized group of terrorists in the US that is made up of groups and individuals without any recognized leader. This group of domestic terrorists is founded on the rightist anarchist ideologies that have their roots in a group known as Posse Comitatus that existed in the seventies (Weil, 2012). This group strongly believes that the government should not abuse power and that because the issue of abuse of power is quite rampant in the US, they should defy the governmental regulations. Therefore, the members of this group refuse to hold documents of identification such as driver’s licenses, social security cards, tax returns, and other relevant issues related to the federal government. This group, therefore, carries out a series of crimes, including kidnapping, killing, court defiance, and threatening of any individual they feel defies their ideology or appears to force them to obey them. For such reasons, the group only exists in the US and attacks only civilians.
Similarly, the Army of God operates and carries out its terrorist groups on US civilians. The group’s organization places Donald Spitz in charge of the coordination of its activities. The group was founded in 1982. This group’s ideology is founded on Christian ideologies concerning abortion. Specifically, the members of this group feel that it is their obligation to stop the public from practicing abortion since it takes away the lives of innocent children (Reese, 2015). The group kidnaps, bombs, and kills individuals who perpetrate abortion. They, however, do not consider their acts criminal since they argue that they only deter the ability of the perpetrators to commit further crime. The members of the group are not restricted to a given geographical region in the US, but are found scattered around the nation.
Lastly, the right and left wing terrorist groups are loosely organized groups whose ideologies are political. The rightist groups push for the right-wing political agenda while the leftists do so for the left-wing approach to political issues. Normally, each of the groups has been known to attack violently those in opposition of their ideas. Up to now, the leftist militias have been the most active in the US, and they have been attacking and killing civilians around the country.
An analysis of two types of terrorism in the perspective of the five terrorist groups reveals that foreign terrorism is the most significant type both in organization and ability terms. For instance, foreign terrorists train soldiers from different locations around the world, which gives them an ability to attack people from the world over. Contrarily, the domestic terrorist groups have their activities limited mainly to the US. The reason given for such a difference is the fact that foreign terrorism is hugely funded compared to the domestic groups, which do not have strong membership bases in comparison. It is also notable that foreign terrorism often targets critical infrastructure such as military and other resources of the US while domestic terrorists often target individuals.
Despite the differences noted in the preceding paragraph, the two types of terrorism have similarities. The first of such similarities is the fact that they all are founded on extremist thoughts, politically, socially, either economically, or religiously. However, the motivations behind each of the terrorist groups vary significantly, with politics and religion being the most significant factors. It is also notable that even while they vary, each of the groups has an organizational structure, which ensures that the activities are coordinated and the members are kept informed.
In conclusion, both domestic and foreign terrorist acts are a threat to the national security of the US. Specifically, domestic terrorism targets civilians while foreign terrorism targets both civilians and critical infrastructure such as the military. Such groups have been motivated by different extremist ideologies based on religion, politics, social factors, and economic ones. For example, the attacks of the Al-Qaeda on the US have been inspired by political differences between the group and the government of the US while the group’s existence is founded on a strong belief in Sunni Jihadists approaches. The domestic terrorist activities have their foundation in different elements such as social and political factors and have their activities limited to the US. The terrorist groups have been difficult to deal with for a long time, which is why the US Department of Homeland Security should be properly prepared to deal with it, especially in the wake of cyber terrorism in the modern days.
References
Gunaratna, R., & Oreg, A. (2010). Al Qaeda's organizational structure and its evolution. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism , 33 (12), 1043-1078.
Reese, W. J. (2015). Soldiers for Christ in the army of God: The Christian school movement in America. Educational theory , 35 (2), 175-194.
Weil, P. (2012). The sovereign citizen: denaturalization and the origins of the American Republic . University of Pennsylvania Press.
