U.s. Military Field Manual - 1426 Words

The intent of this policy memorandum is to propose that policy on counterterrorism in the United States of America be manufactured. Defining counterterrorism in a Western democratic sense is extremely difficult. This is due the uniqueness of each terrorism case. According to Jason Rineheart, what makes this defining process so difficult is that these democracies must take into consideration certain civil liberties and the rule of law. As stated by the U.S. Army Field Manual, counterterrorism can be defined as offensive actions taken in efforts to â€Å"prevent, deter, preempt, and respond to terrorism.† What is most important when defining counterterrorism is the focus on its offensive nature. It is also necessary to focus on the nature†¦show more content†¦Despite its illegality and inefficiency, racial profiling is used to execute the processes of counterterrorism. Therefore for the purposes of this memo, counterterrorism will be defined as the execution of o ffensive actions in order to prevent, deter, preempt and/or respond to terrorism by way of racial identification of targets. Racial profiling as method of counterterrorism is a major problem in the United States. Due to the damaging effects of 9/11 on the moral of the country and the present threats from ISIS, the Muslim-American society as a whole is being depicted in a way that classifies them as extremist terrorists. This fear of the Muslim society has become so dominant that the term â€Å"Islamophobia† has been adopted to communicate â€Å"fear, hatred and hostility towards Islam and Muslims.† As seen in a 2011 report on the West’s respect for Muslims, 52% percent of the American citizens who answered this poll voted that Western societies do not respect Muslim societies. (See figure 1.) The analysts of Gallup attribute this disrespect and fear of Muslim societies to differences in religion and political interests. (See figure 2.) America needs to re evaluate its counterterrorism strategy in order to account for and respect the human rights of its targets. If not, an entire society of people, Muslim-Americans, will be targeted as terrorists. The targeting of an entire group of people based on