Antiterrorism And Counter Terrorism Task Forces example essay topic

December 28, 2001 THE REAL NATIONAL TREASURE The United States, along with the allied forces of the world, is currently fighting to find Osama bin Laden as well as his organization, al Qaeda, in Afghanistan. The new declaration of the "War on Terrorism" has withdrawn all boundaries that the terrorist organizations have been hiding behind. Although this war is a new idea to the average American Citizen, it is an old foe of the governments in most countries, which have already established antiterrorism and counter-terrorism task forces, but are now working together under an allied force. With the tightened security at the airports and military facilities, the counter-terrorism efforts are fighting back to counter the terrorists actions, but the key to fighting terrorism is to prevent the attacks from happening at all.

More than a majority of the American public supports this military action against countries that terrorize the United States. In fact according to a gallop poll, eighty-eight percent of Americans polled agree that the United States should take military action in retaliation for attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The problem that is being faced by the world is how to avoid future attacks after the smoke clears from the current engagement. There are two types of forces that are currently employed against terrorism and both have the same mission of fighting terrorism, with different applications. The antiterrorism force is used as a preventive action against future attacks while the counter-terrorism task force has many more post-action responsibilities. According to the Office of Counter-Terrorism, there are four policies being implemented as guidelines: "Make no concessions to terrorists and strike no deals, bring terrorists to justice for their crimes, isolate and apply pressure on states that sponsor terrorism to force them to change their behavior, and bolster the counter-terrorism capabilities of those countries that work with the U.S. and require assistance".

These steps are necessary to fight terrorism after the actions of horror have occurred, and the current Afghanistan action in search of the al-Qaeda members (including bin Laden) is an example of a counter-terrorism action. In order to prevent future attacks, the United States must put a stronger emphasis on strengthening the antiterrorism forces. Putting more numbers on the membership board of this force is what is going to make headway in the "War on Terrorism". It is a lot more difficult to fight terrorism before the attacks have taken place, but history has already demonstrated that the oldest form of intelligence collection, human intelligence, can be used to fight an entire country. One thing that the United States learned from the former Soviet Union was the value of human intelligence collection methods.

The two world powers that dominated the planet from the end of World War II to the 1990's used this type of information collection more than any other method during the "Cold War". More often than not, the Soviet Union knew the United States' next move just prior to the actual movement, and vice versa. It is this type of surveillance that is needed as part of the antiterrorism efforts throughout the world now. Every major city in the United States is a testament of how different people, with different nationalities and ideologies can come together and form a peaceful community. The challenge that the American government now has is to find those citizens that may wish to preserve the rights that the United States has given them, along with extending these freedoms to other countries. This treasure chest of possible candidates can infiltrate any organization around the world as part of an active antiterrorism task force.

A new antiterrorism "branch" or "department" of the military should recruit these members, just like the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. One lesson that can be learned from the events that unfolded on September 11 is that the United States is not putting to full use the asset of having the only true melting pot in the world. By using the United States' real national treasure of racial diversity, future knee-jerk reactions to terrorist actions can be avoided by preventing the action from occurring at all.