Almost two decades since the first major terrorist attack on American soil, on September 11, 2001, the United States of America has been waging a serious war against terrorist groups all over the world. The September 11 attack was a dramatic escalation of the low-scale terrorist attacks of the 1980s, and it caught the Americans in surprise. The attack prompted the US to focus more on countering terrorism. However, comparing the terrorists’ activities of the last century and today, it is clear that the face of terrorism has changed greatly. This essay will examine the current state of terrorism in the US, analyze the tools that the law enforcers are using to fight terrorism, determine whether the law enforcers have the necessary tool to successfully counter the threat of terrorism, and formulate a proposition on whether the country is winning the war on terrorism.
Examine the current state of the threat of terrorism within America.
The United States is facing the increasingly complex and evolving threat of targeted violence and threat of terrorism. Terrorist organizations still have the intention of hitting America through both directed attacks or radicalized American individuals. The face of terrorism has evolved in that more diverse sets of actors and motivations pose a significant threat to America today. The radicalization of American women into joining the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has changed the nature of terrorism, making it challenging for law enforcement to identify criminals. Women have become easy to coerce and intimidate to join a terrorist group and use violence to promote the political, national, religious, or ideological goals of terrorists ( Shapiro & Maras, 2019 ). Women have taken advantage of the advancement in technology and are highly using the internet for radicalization. With over 69 million users on Twitter and over 2498 million Facebook users, it has become easy to share ISIS ideology only and recruit a new team. The rise in the number of western women's radicalizations poses a threat to the United States and the world since many security issues and recruits are hard to be identified.
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Also, the current state of the threat of terrorism within America is understood by the increased acquisition of weapons of mass destruction by terrorists. Since terrorists target a large audience, access to chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons makes it easy for terrorists to organize large-scale attacks that are disruptive and psychologically potent ( Ackerman & Jacome, 2018) . Several jihadist ideologies have shown their willingness to use CBRN and WMD during their attacks. In 2014, the US army troops in Syria captured several chlorines, sulfur mustard, phosphine, and other toxic industrial chemicals such as vinyl trichlorosilane being deployed to manufacture weapons.
Emerging digital technology has also changed the face of terrorism in the United States as terrorists now organize attacks on major infrastructure. Both foreign and domestic terrorists have also taken advantage of digital technology to steal, trespass, destroy properties, and overwhelm courts with retaliatory legal fillings ( Bjelopera, 2017 ). The recent attack on the US electoral system by Russian entities in 2016 shows the magnitude inflicted by foreign terrorist groups ( Keenan, 2020 ). Terrorists attempted to access the state electoral system database and socially influenced campaigns to push voters to vote for Donald Trump. Also, these terror agencies coordinated attacks on the Democratic National Committee’s database and the subsequent release of data related to the Hillary Clinton campaign ( Brands & Feaver, 2017 ). Again, the attack caught the country by surprise. Today, terrorist groups are also targeting other infrastructures like attacks on power supply systems, gasoline supplies, organizing cyber-attacks, and others.
Analyze the tools law enforcement is using to counter the threat.
The Criminal Justice System has established various tools to help counter-terrorism and prosecute suspected terrorists. A major tool used by prosecutors is the designation of terrorist groups as foreign terrorist organizations ( Keenan, 2020 ). The Secretary of State assembles a dossier of information concerning the terrorist’s organization to determine if it is a foreign or domestic group that threatens American safety. The prosecutors target the group that offers support to the terrorist group in planning and offers material support. Another tool used to counter-terrorism is maintaining several terrorism-related watch lists to enable law enforcement to get factual information regarding an individual or organization. The tool has proven effective in cutting off terrorist funding.
Community-oriented policing is another tool developed after the terrorist event of September 11, 2001, by law enforcement to counter-terrorism. Law enforcement agencies believe that immigrant communities can offer relevant information to counterterrorist activities. Establishing trust and transparency with law enforcement through community policing increases the chances of apprehending illegal immigrants who threaten the nation ( Goldberg & Christopher, 2019). Most terrorists’ activities are planned and prepared within the community. Communities act as breeding and staging grounds for many terrorist activities ( Fitzpatrick et al., 2017 ). Community policing has developed several strategies to address the underlying causes of crime and disorder in the community.
Determine if law enforcement has the necessary tools to counter the threat.
Two decades since the terrorist attack of 9/11/2001 in the US, various counterterror measures have been established to protect the homeland. However, these measures are not enough to counter extremists and foreign terrorism. Although a large amount of expenditure was dedicated post 9/11, where part of it was dedicated to policy and interventions to prevent violence, there is a need to establish a better Strategic Implementation Plan ( Ryan et al., 2018 ). There is a lack of uniform information classification systems among federal agencies like top secrete designations. Increases in the federal source of information have overwhelmed state law enforcement agencies making it hard to discern valuable information.
Despite an increase in the weapons of mass destruction, law enforcement has not fully managed to control their production. US lost thousands of its military troops in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and Syria in fight the ISIS group ( Carrillo, 2019) . Recruiting, training, and sending more military resources to those foreign countries is a very expensive strategy to counter-terrorism ( Brands & Feaver, 2017 ). Many US laws and policies like ownership of guns and respect for privacy make it challenging for law enforcement to arrest suspected terrorists. Based on Counter-Terrorism and Security Act (2015), law enforcement officers are expected to present a balance of probabilities instead of reasonable suspicion when claiming an individual, organizational involvement in terrorism-related activity ( Carrillo, 2019 ). The US still does not possess an ATPCMs regime to be used to pre-emptively detain foreign and US nationals for suspected terrorism engagements.
Formulate your position on whether we are winning the war on terrorists, holding our own, or setting ourselves up for another 9/11.
Based on measures put in place after 9/11 to counter-terrorism, the US has shown remarkable steps in the path towards winning the war on terrorists. Despite the rise in the number of IS-lined plots, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has reported over 900 investigations of Islamic States suspected in the country ( Bjelopera, 2016 ). Identification of suspected terrorists in the FBI The Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB) watchlist has helped stop several known or suspected terrorists who plan to attack the country. Also, the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) dataset has helped monitor IS foreign fighters trying to leave and enter the country. By 2013, over 1.1 million people, including US citizens and foreigners, were identified by TIDE ( Bjelopera, 2016) . Another indicator that the US is winning the war on terrorists is establishing information technologies systems and architecture within NCTC and other agencies to enable access, integration, and dissemination terrorist information. Also, the technology help in screening and interdiction of all travelers at the border to prevent a terrorist from harming the homeland. Effective sharing of information has made it easy to track and stop any terrorist-related activity in the US and across its borders.
Various strategies adopted by the past US presidents have effectively responded to ISIS terrorist attack. By 2014, the US Department of Defense was estimated to have killed over 45,000 ISIS fighters and combated their proficiency. President Obama's administration adopted a light footprint and counter-isis plus strategy, where he deployed 5,000 US troops Iraq and Syrian to counter-terrorism ( Brands & Feaver, 2017 ). Special operations like drone strikes and other long-distance attacks have been used to capture and destroy terrorists groups and organizations. If the current US administration continues to use this less aggressive measure of counter-isis plus strategy, it will avoid the large cost and politically toxic deployments. However, there is still a need to improve counter-terrorism strategy to reduce the amount of time and cost used to fight terrorism
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