- August 30, 2012
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Free essays
Endless debates about antiterrorism programs and their efficient caused huge social resonance and created a number of economical, moral and ethical questions. All of them are mostly connected to the wide spread idea that the United States Homeland Security Programs are not actually efficient and just cost the state huge financial, social, religious problems, cause serious international problems and even strongly connected with crisis. All these accusations have serious reasons and are supported not only by Americans. Violation of human rights could be observed while crossing the border. If we take into consideration influence zone of the US, we will notice that religious factor is not actually the last one in terrorism accusations. American government is spending huge costs on the military control in Iraq, Afghanistan and for antiterrorist operation, but the results of their actions do not correspond to the huge expenses undertaken. The government of the United States, supporting Israel in its endless conflict with Palestine, creates stereotype of aggressively antagonized to Muslim world. I strongly support the idea that the United States Homeland Security is not working in appropriate way. Creating a myth on the international threat of Muslim terroristic organizations, the United States Government is often blamed in xenophobia and racism. It is one the most serious threats that such home and foreign policy, they antagonize all Muslim Countries to the US, what is worse many citizens of the Unites States become aggressively disposed to the Muslim world, supposing them to be the real threat to their country’s and their personal security (D’Souza, Dinesh, 2007).
It goes without saying that such security policy causes serious problem within the country and in the field of international relations of the US. The national security labs provide quite aggressive policy and it seriously influences on the life of people. The human rights violation is often observed when people cross the border. All the suspicious things are usually withdrawn and people spend long hours, finally getting the permission to leave. People who arrive from Islamic countries draw attention of American security labs fist of all. It is not very pleasant to recognize, but even appearance of come people cost them long hours spent at the police stations. I think that such an attitude won’t make American resorts more popular within the holiday-makers. It also seriously influence business relations, as people from Islamic countries are quite fundamental and such a ”˜meeting’ on the border will not make an advantage for business partners.
It is a well known fact that the US Homeland Security causes serious violation of human rights. World known periodical edition The Washington Post published an article, which describes violation of human right for privacy. In the Article “From Casinos to Counterterrorism Las Vegas Surveillance, U.S. Security Efforts Involve Similar Tactics”, the author describes the situation in Las Vegas’ casinos, so called ”˜antiterrorist operations’: “In secret rooms in casinos across Las Vegas, surveillance specialists are busy analyzing information about players and employees. Relying on thousands of cameras in nearly every cranny of the casinos, they evaluate suspicious behavior. They ping names against databases that share information with other casinos, sometimes using facial-recognition software to validate a match. And in the marketing suites, casino staffers track players’ every wager, every win or loss, the better to target high-rollers for special treatment and low- and middle-rollers for promotions. “You could almost look at Vegas as the incubator of a whole host of surveillance technologies,” said James X. Dempsey, policy director for the Center for Democracy and Technology. Those technologies, he said, have spread to other commercial venues: malls, stadiums, amusement parks” (Nakashima, 2009). I think that this case should be observed as a serious intrusion into the private life of people. Serious violation of human rights is observed in the country considered to be stronghold of democracy and human liberties.
Every year the United States Government Accountability Office publishes a report. On the 25th of September they published the report called “Global War on Terrorism: DOD Should Consider All Funds Requested for the War When Determining Needs and Covering Expenses”, every American could learn where the government spend the taxes they pay: “In fiscal years 2004 and 2005, DOD received funding for GWOT through both funds included in its annual appropriation and supplemental appropriations. In fiscal years 2004 and 2005, the military services received about $52.4 billion and $62.1 billion, respectively, in supplemental appropriations for GWOT (1) military personnel and (2) operation and maintenance expenses. The Army, Air Force, and Navy also received in their annual appropriations a combined $7.9 billion in fiscal year 2004 and a combined $7.6 billion in fiscal year 2005, which DOD described as being intended to support GWOT. The military services absorbed the increase into their annual appropriations and allocated it based on their judgment of where the funds were most needed” (Sharon L. Pickup & Government Accountability Office: Defense Capabilities and Management, 2005). It shows how huge costs are involved in the homeland security campaign. And these expenses grow more and more with each passing year. Every American knows that some social structure in America need serious changes, for example, healthcare and educational systems need significant reforms. Despite making financial inputs into the reformation of these systems, the United States government is fighting against the ”˜threat of terrorism’ fighting against ”˜Muslim fanatics’, hating the US.
It is not surprising that according such aggressive militaristic policy, the United States provoked negative attitude of the Islamic countries. They actually do not want to co-operate with the country providing xenophobia. Religious aspect in the US Homeland Security Mission is one of the most burning. One of the reasonable factors in this case is supporting Israel aggressive policy towards Palestine’s territories which is condemned by United Nations Organizations; both sides were blamed in military offences and frequent violation of human rights and liberties. On the 28th of December the United Nations Security Council produced a statement calling for stopping Gaza violation: “The members of the Security Council expressed serious concern at the escalation of the situation in Gaza and called for an immediate halt to all violence,” said a statement read to reporters by Croatian Ambassador Neven Jurica, president of the council. “The members called on the parties to stop immediately all military activities.” Palestinian medical officials said on Sunday that 271 Palestinians had been killed in 24 hours of Israeli attacks in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Since the operation began, one Israeli had been killed by Palestinian rocket fire.” (Worsnip, 2008). Only three countries voted against this resolution, one of them was United States. Such support of aggressive politics of Israel seriously undermines the United States authority in International Organizations, United Nations Organization in particular. I think that supporting of aggressive politics of other countries and supporting aggressive military tactics in homeland security won’t play a good advantage on the international arena. The United States has been already considered to provide aggressive foreign policy, especially when it comes to the wars with Islamic countries. It seriously undermined the country’s authority, especially after military conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, where seriously suffered civilian population.
Anti Islamic propaganda in the United States has become a typical situation. The image of Osama Bin Laden as Number One terrorist in the world, and Islamic terroristic groups, often confuse civilian population. The information they get from governmental sources describe cruel and antihuman treatment of Islamic terroristic groups. “At first Dinesh D’Souza considered him “a dark-eyed fanatic, a gun-toting extremist, a monster who laughs at the deaths of 3,000 innocent civilians.” But once he learned how Osama bin Laden was viewed in the Muslim world, D’Souza changed his mind. Now he finds bin Laden to be “a quiet, well-mannered, thoughtful, eloquent and deeply religious person.” Despite being considered a friend of the Palestinians, he “has not launched a single attack against Israel.” We denounce him as a terrorist, but he uses “a different compass to assess America than Americans use to assess him.” Bin Laden killed only 3,000 of us, with “every victim counted, every death mourned, every victim’s family generously compensated.” But look what we did in return: many thousands of Muslims dead in Afghanistan and Iraq, “and few Americans seem distressed over these numbers”” (Wolfe, 2007). This paragraph describes the attitude of investigator Dinesh D’Souza, who expressed his view on the US Homeland Security, in particular Counterterrorism war of the United States. Here we see the typical government of Islamic terrorist created by the American Security Lab in the minds of people. But the author describes the realities, which are opposite to ”˜traditional opinion’ provided by American Government. It goes without saying how it influences the minds of people and their attitude to terrorists. The author describes his personal opinion “before” and “after”. The social stereotype creates a number of moral, ethical and social problems, within the country and influences interpersonal communication, business and many other aspects of human’s life. I think that this stereotype development is not a good idea for struggling against terrorism.
A number of ethical questions are raised within different investigative articles among them is the book of Professor Thomas Easton “Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in Science, Technology, and Society”. In the form of argumentative dialogue, the author describes the regular violation of human right for privacy by the surveillance technologies, used by the US Homeland Security providers to identify potential threats and terrorists. The United States has always been considered to be the country, which inner policy strongly deals with high moral and ethical norms and maintenance of human rights and liberties. Now we see that some actions of American Security labs are opposite to the international norms of ethics and morality. They do not even try to observe them. The mass media of the United States is describing numerous facts of human rights violation. A number of them could be found in The Washington Post and The New York Times: “Fewer than 10 U.S. citizens or residents a year, according to an authoritative account, have aroused enough suspicion during warrantless eavesdropping to justify interception of their domestic calls, as well” (Gellmane, Linzer, Leonnig, 2006) perfectly describes the violation of human rights and intrusion into the personal life of a number American citizens.
In the end I would like to note that the United States has already appeared in the scrutinized situation. It is not already considered to be an authority, but is considered to be aggressor. The Antiterrorist wars seem to fail. The attitude of the Nation is showed in books by Dinesh D’Souza. Instead of solving inner problems within the states with healthcare and educational system, the United States spends huge costs on military operations in order ”˜to protect America from Islamic terrorists’. It does not look as persuasive as it was after the tragedy of 11 September 2001 in New York. It does not seem like protecting the nation. It is looking like the simulating the process of protecting from mythical threats. The human rights and liberties of common Americans are violated ”˜for the sake of the Nation’. I think that now the situation is even worse than it could be. Actually the United States Homeland Security is actually not working. It will be very hard to give any advice or direction in order to better the situation. But I think that present day situation ought to be changed. Americans should not pay for the mistakes of their government, as the attitude to Americans in some Islamic countries, for example, is extremely negative. That is not their fault but it could not change the situation. I think that huge costs spend on militarization and international support of Israel wars against Palestine should be spend on reformation of education and health care systems. I think that government should devote more time to internal problems and questions, such two significant problems with education and health care. International policy is also very important. For many years America was considered to be the guarantor of democracy, rights for privacy and liberties. It will be very hard to describe the idea, but I think that past authority of the United States should be restored. I think that there are a lot of things to work about international policy and internal policy too. I think that the anti terrorist wars were not good idea to strengthen the authority within the international relations with other countries. The social relations between governmental structures and society should be regulated by the norms of ethic and morality, the human rights for privacy and liberties should be also observed. The image of the country usually influences it’s representatives, the negative attitude to Americans in Islamic countries should be vanished. Actually, I think that a complex strategy should be developed to achieve the wanted result. I think that the US should make first steps to regulate relation with the Islamic countries.
It will be very important for the development of the US business. I think will also give a huge advantage and reliable partnership for American corporations. I do not think it will be an easy task, but it will be very important for further development of the country and its inner and outer relations.