Terrorist attacks are not aimed at the owners of individual businesses or buildings; rather, terrorists always target the political and economic systems of the United States. As a result, the major part of the responsibility for preventing terrorism lies with the federal, state and local governments as a part of homeland security. Due to the uncertainty of the terrorists, it is always difficult to assess and analyze how, when and why the terrorists may attack. In spite of the measures taken, it has always remained as a challenge to mitigate terrorism because; terrorists have the capability to adjust their behavior and aim a new target to attack in order to maximize the damage . Hence, it has made terrorism unpredictable unlike other natural disasters.
The severity of injury, loss, damage and the certainty of location have made it more difficult to mitigate terrorist attacks. Terrorists who indulge in attacks may be the citizens of the United States or foreigners, who work on their own or on the behalf of a terrorist group. The issue reminds of three major types of threats faced by America today: a prolongation of traditional military threats from hostile nations, conventional threats from hostile states and political groups that belong to the state, and international terrorist threats from enemies . The physical protection against terrorist attacks has seen a dramatic improvement in the recent years; however, there are several limitations against protecting the critical infrastructure of the country.
The dominant mode of threat employed by the terrorists till date has been through bombings as it is easy to execute and leads to a great extent of structural damage. A majority of the mitigation standards designed to fight against terrorism, but many of them are in a confined set of geographical locations and building types. It is more difficult and pricier to enforce solutions against terrorist attacks as it is site-specific and structure-specific; rather than generic in nature . The recommendations and mitigation standards suggested by the experts are not suitable for an urban landscape. Hence, it is not possible to identify the terrorist attacks well before in hand as they tend to be expensive and deadly. The techniques used to mitigate terrorist attacks are weaker when compared to the intensity of the terrorist attack .
Blast protection devices have been installed in many buildings, but they prove to be inefficient if the explosive is a massive one. Since terrorist attacks are not possible to forecast, the Homeland Security of the United States has issued a color coding system to assess the severity of the attacks . The purpose of mitigation against terrorism requires the involvement of a wide array of stakeholders in the planning process to carry out a broad assessment of risk and vulnerability. However, the involvement of stakeholders in the planning process of mitigation is still a question as it involves several conflicting issues . Moreover, the increase in the cost of efforts to fight against terrorism has become a major problem in the United States.
There are a few other reasons that explain why it is difficult to analyze and mitigate terrorism. The country is of a misconception that the major menace to the democracy of the United States from terrorism is the destruction of life and property . Rather, the actual destruction is caused to the international unity of the countries, which may be hampered due to policy differences and the public relations image of the United States abroad. Another reason is the measurement of the impact of the unintentional outcomes as a result of terrorist activities . Hence, terrorism should be measured as a process and phenomenon and not merely as an attack.
Works Cited
Goss, T. (2006, April 01). "Who's in Charge?" New Challenges in Homeland Defense and Homeland Security. Retrieved July 07, 2014, from Homeland Security Affairs: http://www.hsaj.org/?fullarticle=2.1.2
Perl, R. (2007, March 12). Combating Terrorism: The Challenge of Measuring Effectiveness. Retrieved July 07, 2014, from Congressional Research Service: http://fas.org/sgp/crs/terror/RL33160.pdf
Steve Coates, P. R. (2013, May 03). Terrorism: understanding & mitigation. Retrieved July 07, 2014, from Financialdirector: http://www.financialdirector.co.uk/financial-director/feature/2265837/terrorism-understanding-mitigation
