by Brian Tomlinson

Created on: May 30, 2008

Defining Terrorism-Fighting an Undefined Enemy.

The statement "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter," has become one of the most perplexing statements and the most difficult obstacle in defining terrorism. The task of defining terrorism and actually conceptualizing it has become purely scholastic, and academic, for scholars to work out the appropriate set of parameters for the research they intend to undertake. "In the struggle against terrorism, the problem of definition is a crucial element in the attempt to coordinate international collaboration, based on the currently accepted rules of traditional warfare."

Most of the world has experienced terrorism first hand, though until recently Americans have viewed terrorism in a regional context. The Middle East region was home to the most deadly of terrorist attacks. The 1993 attacks on the World Trade Center gave a small reminder to Americans, of the 1983 Marine barrack attacks in Beirut. The 1995 Oklahoma City bombings of a Federal building created a fear, and anger at home grown terrorism. But nothing could prepare America or the world for the attacks that would happen on September 11, 2001.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, two commercial airplanes were hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center in New York City. Moments later another airplane was hijacked and flown into the Pentagon, then; another commercial airplane was which was heading toward Washington D.C. for more death and destruction was stopped by passengers, and crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The attack of 9-11 killed over two thousand people, and equaled the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, if not in dead then in massive destruction and devastation.

America has declared war on terrorism. Without getting into the philosophy of war and its many philosophical differences and definitions, war presupposes many things, and those things such as, clearly defined warring, or conflicting states, boarders, limitations, and rules of engagement are not apparent. Though there is no formal declaration of war, there is most assured a battle being waged across the globe. A state of war is clear, and understood, however vagueness, ambiguity, and lack of clarity is what is present, and will be for a long time. Familiar law enforcement and military tactics alone will not win this new type of war- on terrorism.

There are no trenches to fight from, no aerial combat to conceive, or hill to take; this is a new type of warfare, where the battlefield

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