150 words each

reply to two students in the discussion 150 words each. reply as student do not critique or grade work, only add to the discussion

First Reply to Jessica
I have chosen question number 1.
Describe how the United States has been affected by homegrown terrorists. List at least three domestic attacks committed by homegrown terrorists not yet presented in the video lecture series. How have these attacks changed your outlook on life and your daily activities?

The United States has been affected by homegrown terrorists ever since the September 11th attacks.  Since then there has been a growing concern of Muslim citizens and residents of the United States to plot attacks within the country’s borders. This is a “phenomenon sometimes referred to as “homegrown” terrorism (King, 2017). However to assess this apparent threat, it is usually necessary to examine what is known about the willingness and capacity of Muslim Americans to execute deadly attacks in the United States. This usually involves three conditions, either alone, together or whether it could contribute to an increasing threat of homegrown terrorism.
Some examples of domestic attacks that come to mind is when Richard W. Collins III was fatally stabbed in May 2017 at the University of Maryland’s College Park campus. He was an African American, newly commissioned U.S Army officer from Maryland. He was just as innocent as the 22 victims that were slain during the Manchester suicide bombing massacre that happened in the same month. He was supposed to graduate that week from Bowie State University. The night he was killed he was minding his own business enjoying his night out with friends. Authorities believed Collins death was a hate crime at the time due to a speech he had given on House Floor called the killing of his constituent which is considered a vicious crime probably motivated by hate.While the Manchester massacre was with no doubt considered an attack of terrorism.
Other domestic attacks examples include
Orlando: During the shooting rampage at Pulse Nightclub in Florida Omar Mateen killed 49 people. He pledged allegiance to the Islamic state during the attack.
Chattanooga: During this attack four marines and a sailor were shot and killed at a Navy reserve center by Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez.
San Bernardino: Mass shooting that took place at the county office by Syed Rizwan who was born in Chicago.  He and his Pakistani wife killed 14 people at a holiday party on December 2, 2015.
Little Rock: One soldier was killed and another was wounded during a drive by shooting that took place in front of a military recruiting office. The known killed was Abulhakim Mujahid Muhammad who was born in Memphis. He converted to Islam and traveled to Yemen, where he joined a holy war against the United States and Israel. During his investigation he even told the officers he wanted to kill as many U.S military personnel as possible.
Overall these attacks have changed my outlook on life pretty tremendously. I am constantly paying attention to my surroundings. I am much more hesitant to attend events where large amounts of people may be such as concerts. And I am even more neglect ant when it comes to traveling because you never can be too safe anymore. There is so much hate and violence in this world you can’t even go out to a movie theater and enjoy yourself without worrying that someone may be in there with a gun waiting to blow everyone away.
References
Dorell, O. (2017, March 23). From Fort Hood to Pulse nightclub: A list of homegrown terror in the U.S. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/03/23/homegrown-terror-suspects-london-attack/99531374/
King, C. I. (2017, May 26). The U.S. has a homegrown terrorist problem – and it’s coming from the right. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-us-has-a-homegrown-terrorist-problem–and-its-coming-from-the-right/2017/05/26/10d88bba-4197-11e7-9869-bac8b446820a_story.html
Muslim ‘Homegrown’ Terrorism in the United States: How Serious Is the Threat? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/muslim-homegrown-terrorism-united-states-how-serious-threat

Second Reply to Kareema

After reading the article, I agree that America’s counterterrorism policy is failing. The first piece of evidence is the light footprint counter-terrorism approach. The “light footprint” that is Barack Obama’s doctrine in foreign policy originated as Donald Rumsfeld’s doctrine in military policy (Wieseltier, 2013). This approach is done by utilizing a combination of targeted drone strikes, elite units, and U.S. special forces raids. The goal of this approach is to take out the leadership of the group to render them incapable of strategizing any attacks. A benefit to this strategy would be keeping Americans out of harm’s way. One of the primary problems with the light footprint is that the United States’ objectives and priorities invariably diverge from those of potential indigenous allies.
An example of this is Syria. Obama explained that U.S. forces would destroy the Islamic State primarily by airstrikes. However, Syria was more interested in overthrowing Assad than combating the Islamic State. According to Stapleton (2016), airstrikes may be useful for disrupting the operation of terrorist organizations, they cannot mitigate the root causes of terrorism. Another issue at hand is nation building. Both President Obama and President Bush have made long term commitments to fixing and building third-world countries (Sedney, 2015). As stated in the article, this commitment is expensive and can take a long time. The problem with this is not knowing what the outcome of the work may be. Assisting other countries may not always show good results. I agree that what we need are leaders who will understand that there are no quick fixes to every solution.
Sedney, D. (2015, January 21). America’s Counterterrorism Policy Is Failing. Retrieved January 22, 2019, from http://time.com/3676321/americas-counter-terrorism-policy-is-failing/
Stapleton, B. (2016, June 07). The Problem with the Light Footprint: Shifting Tactics in Lieu of Strategy. Retrieved January 22, 2019, from https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/problem-light-footprint-shifting-tactics-lieu-strategy
Wieseltier, L. (2013, January 29). Welcome to the Era of the Light Footprint. Retrieved January 22, 2019, from https://newrepublic.com/article/112205/obama-doctrine-light-footprint-lightweight-thinking

Reply to professor

Can you expound on the difference between a domestic terrorist, and one who assumes the role of a terrorist due to strong religious beliefs or influences? Can we separate the two?