The Plague of Human Civilization A paper on terrorism

Essay by vivienne_caoUniversity, Bachelor's May 2005

download word file, 5 pages 3.0

On the morning of September 11, 2001, a hijacked Boeing 767, American Airlines Flight 11, crashed into the north tower of World Trade Center at 8:45 a.m. (EDT). Twenty-eight minutes later, a second hijacked Boeing 767, United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston en route to LA, hit the south tower. Controlled by ten terrorists, these two passenger jets tore gapping holes in WTC, and set both buildings afire. At 9:43 a.m., American Airlines Flight 77, also hijacked, slammed into the Pentagon, while a fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed in the Somerset County, PA. Within the next 30 minutes, United States underwent the most horrific tragedy of terrorism in human history. The two towers of WTC imploded and plummeted into the streets below.

The September 11 terrorist attack took a heavy toll of human lives. It also caused a damage estimated to approach US$30 billion. Horrified at the scale of this catastrophe, the world is now more fidgety than ever before as it awaits a grave future.

However, despite people's recent concern on this issue, what is currently known as terrorism has been practiced throughout history. The earliest form of terrorism traces its root back to ancient Greece, where Xenophon (430-350BC) and other historians recorded assassination and psychological warfare in their works 2-3. In first-century Palestine, the Zealots, an unrelenting Jewish group, defied Roman Empire by poisoning and stabbing its Jewish collaborators. During the 11th century, a radical Islamic sect known as the Ismailis employed ritualized murder for a course they believed to be righteous. When the term "terrorism" was coined during the French Revolution (1789-1799), Jacobine's extensive use of guillotines was once celebrated as the best way to defend liberty. From the end of the 18th century to the beginning of WWI, many anarchists and nationalists practiced terrorism...