The Root Cause of Terrorism

In some way or another, depending on how broad your definition of terrorism is, terrorism has been used since the first century AD. It was also used heavily in the French revolution, with people being hung publicly in large masses. This time was known as the reign of terror, using death to scare and intimidate enemy regimes. Today terrorism is seen sporadically in the U.S. but it is happening everyday in other countries. A war on terror was announced on September 20, 2001 by president Bush during a speech to congress. “Our war on terror begins with Al Qaida, but it doesn’t end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated.”

Most people in america would be ignorant enough to say that terrorism comes from religion. They would say that almost everyone that is muslim or is seen dressing like one or wearing a hijab can automatically be labeled as a terrorist. If a person wearing something like a burqa, and they went into a school or a public place and shot a bunch of people they would be labeled as a terrorist, but if a white person did the same thing it would be seen as they have mental issues and they just need help. With that comes a stereotype that everybody that wears a burqa or hijab can be labeled as a terrorist.

For the most part, depending on how you look at it, the war on terror has been successful. There has been no attack even close to the size of 9/11 since 9/11 and many leaders have been eliminated from the evil regime in the middle east. But the original budget for the war was 68 billion set in 2001, today in 2016 it has added over two trillion dollars to the debt that the U.S. is in. With that over 210,000 Iraq and afghanistan civilians have been killed from poorly targeted airstrikes and countless drone strikes.

The root of terrorism can be seen