War on Terror - Bobby Orokos

Memorandum on Tactics Used to Fight the War on Terror

To: President of the United States, Donald Trump

Cc. Mark Shirk

March 9, 2017

Mr. President,

            The War on Terror is a struggle the United States has been fighting for over 15 years now, and terror still exists all around the world, even after our attempts of eliminating it.  If all our hard work over the past decade and a half have not put us closer to achieving our goal, maybe the ways in which we fight terror need to be adjusted.  Our actions of eliminating terrorists have only lead to more recruitment for these organizations: we are seen as an evil killing whomever we suspect to be associated with terrorism, especially in the Middle East.  Even in Iranian policies, the United States is referred to “the Great Satan” for our actions.  Our methods need to change to both boost our reputation around the world, and achieve our goal of eliminating terror.

            First, we need to recognize that although our past methods have helped achieve our goal, it has also lead to a stronger recruitment for terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).  This recruitment is not necessarily specifically Muslims in the Middle East, but people all over the world.  For example, a man referred to as “Jihadi John”, was a British Muslim who was responsible for beheadings of Westerners.  ISIS has proved exceptional in recruitment practices, as many of their attacks around the world were not of Middle Eastern Muslims, but Westerners who they were able to radicalize to fight for their goal of a Caliphate.

            In order to better achieve our goal of eliminating terror around the world, we need to start by cutting recruitment of these organizations.  Our government is already targeting social media accounts dedicated to the recruitment for ISIS, but we need to do more.  By shifting our focus from eliminating potential threats, we need to prevent future members of terrorist organizations, and then crack down on those who are associated with these groups.  By taking out targets, especially in public settings, or targets that were not associated with an organization, we only push people further away from supporting our cause, and demote our standing in the eyes of people.

            Recruitment is strong because the actions the United States take against terrorism are seen on a world-wide spectrum, whereas the actions taken by terrorist organizations are not necessarily as widely seen.  Also, the United States eliminates threats in front of others, or harms civilians in the process of eliminating the target.  For example, 64-116 civilians have died as a result of drone strikes from January 20, 2009 until December 31, 2015.  These “targeted killings” need to be more direct, in the sense we need to be 110% certain these targets we are eliminating are directly associated with terrorist organizations, and that no other persons could come to harm in the process of eliminating the target.

            Overall, the United States has attempted to eliminate terror since the 9/11 attacks in New York City, and has been fairly successful in doing so.  However, in our attempt to eliminate terror, we have drawn some people towards terrorist groups as a result of our tactics.  In order to truly eliminate terror, we need to be seen as the hero in the War on Terror, not the villain.  In order to achieve this stance, we need to change our tactics so we truly are fighting purely terror only, not harming civilians or other groups in the process.  Eliminating suspected terrorists has only lead to stronger recruitment for organizations: the United States must show how the actions of terrorists are evil to prevent future recruitment, and then narrow our focus onto eliminating the organization as a whole later on.