Changes Terrorism Has Brought to the United States

¶ … Terrorism Has Changed the United States The United States has experienced considerable threats of terrorism in the past decade similar to other parts of the world. This threat has largely emerged from the fact that groups like Al-Qaeda and other terror organizations have continued to pose a significant threat to the United States homeland. Despite the success that the country has achieved in eliminating terror groups and organizations like al-Qaeda, affiliate and extremist groups continue to pose a major threat to the United States.

The increase in terrorist activities and incidents in the recent past have contributed to various measures adopted by the United States as well as other countries towards combating terrorism. These efforts have significantly transformed the United States and other countries around the globe with regards to security measures, immigration, and foreign policy. The Threat of Terrorism to the United States The United States wasn't officially involved in any foreign war more than a decade ago, which contributed to a simpler surveillance state as compared to today (Green par, 1).

However, the threat of terrorism in the past decade has contributed to America's involvement in foreign wars since the 9/11 terror attacks. The threat of terror has continued to rise in the past decade as various terrorist groups or organizations and extremist groups have developed, especially in Islamic countries. The growth or the rise of the threat of terrorism in the past 10 years is also attributed to the rapid technological developments that have characterized the modern society.

The technological advancements have made it easier for terrorists and their respective groups to develop sophisticated weapons, which help them in achieving their respective goals. In the past few years, America has successfully developed and implemented measures that have helped in eliminating and dealing with terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda. However, affiliate and extremist groups have made it difficult to completely deal with the threat of terrorism. Actually, the threat of terrorism has increased because of continued emergence of terrorist groups and organizations with certain political, ideological, economic, and social objectives.

This has contributed to difficulties in identifying a single, universal definition or description of terrorism. However, terrorism is described as the use of illegitimate use of force and violence against people or property to coerce, intimidate a government or population in order to achieve certain political, ideological, or social objectives (Plumer par, 3). The other aspect through which the threat of terrorism has become a major security issue in the United States is the emergence of terrorists and terror groups within the country.

Despite success in dealing with external terrorist groups, domestic terrorism has also increased significantly in the United States in the past decade. The growth of domestic terrorism has been characterized by arrests of local terrorist and several terrorist attacks carried out by terrorists within the country. Similar to foreign terrorist groups and organizations, domestic terrorists have carried out their attacks and activities in attempts to further a specific political, ideological, social or economic objective.

Changes on the United States because of Terrorism As the growth and threat of terrorism has become a major issue across the globe, terrorism has significantly changed the United States. These changes have particularly been implemented after the 9/11 terror attacks, which had a significant impact on the country. The changes that terrorism has brought on the United States have occurred because of the government's increased measures towards improving homeland security. Actually, the United States has continued to adopt various measures to protect people and property and combat terrorism.

Moreover, the likelihood of another terror attack on the United States has made the country to brace itself for such attacks and prevent them from happening through developing and implementing several security measures. Some of the major in which terrorism has changed the United States include Changes in America's Core Values One of the major ways through which terrorism has changed the United States is by contributing to changes in the country's core values.

In essence, the threat of terrorism has changed America's laws and core values with regards to enhancing homeland security. These changes have been characterized by increased expenditures on national or homeland security since billions of dollars have been spent on security policies and practices (Jenkins par, 5). The other evidence of changes in America's core values because of terrorism is changes in America's military doctrine, particularly in engaging in foreign wars to combat terrorism.

Third, America's core values have been changed by terrorism through increase in federal deficit and considerable impact on the country's economy as part of fostering security policies and practices. Therefore, the terrorism has changed the United States by contributing to re-organization of various core values in order to deal with this threat. Involvement in Foreign Wars Before the 9/11 terror attacks, the United States had not engaged in any foreign war for a long period of time.

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which is one of the most devastating terror activity on the United States, American has engaged in foreign wars as part of its war on terror initiatives. Actually, less than one month after this attack, the United States send its troops to Afghanistan in initiatives to eliminate al-Qaeda and remove the Taliban government, which was accused of harboring the terrorist group (Green par, 3). Two years after invading Afghanistan, America invaded Iraq even though the invasion was not directly linked to fighting terror.

However, America's invasion of Iraq was closely associated with the new initiatives that had been initiated by Bush Administration towards War on Terror. The aftermath of 9/11 attacks have been characterized by America's deep entanglement in foreign wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. United States war in Afghanistan has developed to become the longest-running battle in the history of the country. Moreover, the end of America's war on Iraq in 2011 left Iraq in an increasingly vulnerable political state as compared to the way it was before the war.

Given the threat of ISIS, an Islamic extremist group, on the stability of Iraq, America is considering resuming its military operations in Iraq to deal with the extremely dangerous group. Generally, terrorism has changed America by contributing to the country's involvement in foreign wars. As a result of terrorism, millions of young American soldiers have been deployed in foreign countries over the past decade. Some of these soldiers have returned home with significant physical and psychological injuries as well as mental disorders like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The increased involvement in foreign wars has contributed to the recruitment of more than 3.1 million Americans into military service in the past 14 years. During this period, over 6,000 U.S. soldiers have lost their lives in the battlefield whereas approximately 44,000 have been wounded. While over 18% of these troops suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or depression upon return from the wars, nearly 20% are reportedly suffering from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).

Acceptance of Less Privacy The most visible impact of terrorism on the United States is making Americans accept less privacy due to enactment of various security policies. The last 10 years have been characterized by an unprecedented assertion of presidential authority through the enactment of several security policies (Reader's Digest Editors par, 1). Americans have seemingly accepted less privacy because of terrorism through electronic surveillance without warrants and utilization of coercive interrogation measures that could have helped prevent 9/11 terror attacks.

The most evident acceptance and intrusion of privacy is the use of full-body scanners across airports in the United States. American citizens have expressed their willingness to accept and tolerate such personal impositions in order to prevent terrorism and enhance national security. Immediately after the 9/11 terror attacks, the U.S. Congress enacted the Patriot Act that expanded the powers of federal officials to closely monitor personal information. In this case, federal officials have powers to closely monitor cell phone calls, car travel, and credit card.

In the modern American society, there are nearly 4,000 federal, state, and local organizations that participate in domestic counterterrorism measures. Moreover, U.S. National Security Agency has more than 30,000 professionals spying on 1.7 billion intercepted e-mails and other communications on a daily basis (Reader's Digest Editors par, 2). In addition, the Federal Bureau of Investigations granted important new powers or authority to over 10,000 agents to search databases, monitor household trash, and use stakeout groups to examine specific individuals.

Even though these efforts have played a significant role in enhancing homeland security in the United States, they have also contributed to acceptance of less privacy by many Americans. Essentially, the various security initiatives have generated greater law enforcement success that has helped in thwarting terror attacks and enhancing homeland security. At the same time, these initiatives have resulted in less acceptance of privacy as compared to the period before the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

United States citizens and residents have been subjected to increased scrutiny by law enforcement officials as part of measures to enhance the safety of American's and property unlike before. Mushrooming Intelligence and Surveillance State The acceptance of less privacy by many American in order to prevent terrorism has in turn contributed to a mushrooming intelligence and surveillance state. American surveillance agencies have developed and established intelligence-gathering colossus in the aftermath of 9/11 attacks (Gellman & Miller par, 1).

Actually, the aftermath of 9/11 terror attacks have been characterized by a mushrooming or booming intelligence and surveillance state. The growth of the surveillance and intelligence state in the country has been fueled by increased government intrusion and establishment of huge, clandestine network of phone and Internet supervision. A massive surveillance state has been developed in the country and secretly intruded into the lives of many ordinary Americans.

The other factor that has contributed to the growth of the surveillance state is the huge budget that has been allocated to the network. In 2013, the clandestine network, which is made of 16 spy agencies and more than 100,000 employees, was allocated $52.6 billion. The huge amount is geared towards enhancing the effectiveness of the operations of these agencies and professionals. Despite the increased investments, the surveillance and intelligence community has been coupled with several failures that have affected its effectiveness. The U.S.

spy agencies have been accused of being unable to provide important information to the president regarding a series of threats to national security. While the overall level of intelligence spending has been increased in the past decade, there are numerous uncertainties on how these agencies spend their money or their performance in comparison with objectives established by the president and the U.S. Congress.

Moreover, the agencies have scrutinized many emails and other communications by many Americans who are not linked to terrorism and violated privacy rules several times in attempts to combat terrorism. Immigration and Deportation The United States has responded to the threat of terrorism by enacting tougher laws on immigration to prevent any external attacks on the country. In essence, terrorism has changed America by contributing to the nation's enactment of stringiest immigration policies that have resulted in the deportation of several people.

In the aftermath of 9/11 attacks, the United States consolidated its Immigration and Naturalization Service and the U.S. Customs Service into the new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The consolidation was bolstered by a range of federal regulations that streamlined the deportation procedure for criminals. As a result, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has witnessed an increase in the number of deportations, which have doubled since 2011. The number of deportations increased significantly between 2009 and 2010 when it hit a record high of approximately 400,000 every year.

While most of those who were deported were actually convicted of an offense, most of these offenses were committed by low-level offenders (Green par, 10). The other aspect of immigration and deportation that has changed in the United States due to terrorism is the establishment of the Secure Communities program in 2008. This program permits local law enforcement to examine the immigration status of each individual booked in county or local jail.

This evaluation would be carried out even if the individual was not convicted of an offense and through comparing fingerprints against records kept by federal immigration. The program has lead to several cases of unregistered immigrants entering deportation proceedings even if they were stopped for minor infringements. However, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has since established information-sharing partnerships with every law enforcement agency throughout the country. These immigration and deportation policies and practices have been geared towards enhancing homeland security.

In the past few years, federal investigators have improved their efforts toward collecting necessary intelligence to combat terrorist plans. The efforts, which are bolstered by the mushrooming intelligence and surveillance initiatives, have focused on replacing reactive law enforcement with proactive measures. Proactive law enforcement is centered on identify terror plans and use of preventive intervention measures. The adoption of proactive law enforcement has in turn proven successful in terms of the number of terrorist plots that have been uncovered and thwarted (Jenkins par, 10).

Development of Homeland Security Enterprise and Infrastructure The other way through which America has changed because of terrorism is through the development of homeland security enterprise and infrastructure. In the aftermath of 9/11 terror attacks, the United States established the Department of Homeland Security, which partners with several agencies across the federal government, public and private sectors, and communities ("Preventing Terrorism" par, 1). Through these partnerships, the Department of Homeland Security works towards developing a new homeland security enterprise in order to better mitigate and protect against dynamic threats.

The partnerships also help this agency to lessen risks and enhance ability to respond and convalesce from all manner of attacks. The main goal of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is to protect America from terrorism. Despite America's strength and resilience because of a better homeland security enterprise, terrorism continues to evolve and persist. The evolution and persistence of terrorism has contributed to the fact that these activities are not only carried out by individuals or groups but also emerge from distant regions or local neighborhoods.

The Department of Homeland Security seeks to ensure protection against terrorism by partnering with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies as well as citizens, business and communities. The partnerships are established because these various stakeholders need to assume a leading role in detection and prevention of terror attacks. Moreover, protection the United States is a shared responsibility that requires concerted efforts through increased awareness of the threats faced by the country. The development of homeland.