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Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow

      

Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow.

Terrorism is a real and urgent threat to nations and their interests a threat that could become perilous if terrorists acquire nuclear or biological weapons. The policies pursued by the bush administration have too often been counterproductive and self-defeating. In the name of an ‘offensive’ strategy, they have undermined the values and principles that made the United States a model for the world, dismayed cooperative nations around the world and jeopardize their cooperation with us, and provided ammunition for terrorist recruitment in the Middle East and beyond. To achieve our long-term objective we must go beyond narrow counterterrorism policies to embed counterterrorism in an overarching national security strategy designed to restore American leadership and respect in the world. This leadership must be based on a strong commitment to our values and to building the structures of international cooperation that are needed to only fight terrorists, but also to meet key challenges of our time: proliferation; climate change and energy security; the danger of pandemic disease; and the need to sustain a vibrant global economy that lifts the lives of people everywhere.
We have to demonstrate that the model of liberty and tolerance embodied by the United States, are the enemy of these universal ambitions. We must pursue an integrated set of policies- on non-proliferation, energy and climate, global public health and economic development- which reflect recognition that in an independent world, the American people can be safe and prosperous only if others too share in these blessings. Our policies must demonstrate a respect for differences of history, culture and tradition, while remaining true to the principles of liberty embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This kind of enlightened self-interest led others to rally to American leadership in the Cold War and offers the best hope for sustaining our leadership in the future. The world is filled with terrorist organizations. While the State Departments list of designated groups includes almost four dozen, numerous well known ones are still omitted because of issues related to designation process. Yet to many organizations, only one subset currently poses a serious and sustained threat to the United States and its allies: the Sunni jihadist organization known by the shorthand ‘al Qaeda’The group merits this special status because it is the only terrorist organization with the ambition and the capability to inflict genuinely catastrophic damage, which can provisionally be defined as attacks that claim causalities in the four digits or higher. The group is also unique in that it may eventually be able to carry out a campaign of repeated attacks that would have a paralyzing effect on American life and its institutions. Its ability to foil fundamental U.S. strategic goals-as it did in Iraq and as it threatens to do together with the Taliban in Afghanistan-has been amply demonstrated. As the turmoil in Pakistan has demonstrated, its capacity for upsetting the geopolitics of major regions of the world today is also unrivalled among non-state actors. The evidence provided by September 11, 2001 is sufficient to demonstrate the groups’ capability and its determination. Unlike most terrorist, it eschews incremental gains and seeks no part of a negotiation process; it seeks to achieve its primary ends, including mobilization of a large number of Muslims, through violence.
The Bush administration has fundamentally misunderstood the nature of the jihadist movement and its actions have made the threat considerably worse. The administration has hyped the threat and subordinated foreign security policy into the ‘Global War on Terror.’ It has relied on the wrong tools –principally the military- and vastly overemphasized tactics at the expense of strategy. To the extent that it has a strategy for reducing the appeal of jihad, it is the ‘freedom agenda’ which has backfired. Counter terrorism requires a shift away from a foreign and security policy that makes counterterrorism the prism through which everything is evaluated and decided. It requires a policy that must go beyond uncompromising efforts to do away with those who seek to harm us today. International engagement is essential in meeting this threat since it will ensure that new terrorist recruits do not come to take the place of those that have been defeated.
(Adapted from ‘strategic Counterterrorism’ by Daniel Benjamin, Policy Paper Number 7, 2008)
Questions
a) .In what ways were the policies pursued by the Bush administration counterproductive and self-defeating?

b).What according to the author is the essence of American counterterrorism leadership?

c).Make notes on what ought to be done to uphold American leadership?

d).In the following sentence, replace the underlined expression with one word
It requires a policy that must go beyond uncompromising efforts to do away with those who seek to harm us today

e).Why is Al-Qaida a unique group?

f).What is needed in the fight against terrorism?

g).In your opinion, what is the most dangerous aspect of terror a threat?

h).Explain the meaning of each of the following words as used in the passage

a) Embed
b) Designated
c) Foil
d) Prism

  

Answers


Martin
a. They have undermined the values and principles that made the United States a model for the world, dismayed cooperative nations around the world and jeopardized their cooperation with us, and provided ammunition for terrorist recruitment in the Middle East and beyond.

b. This leadership must be based on a strong commitment to values and to building the structures of international cooperation that are needed to fight terrorists and to meet other key challenges such as proliferation; climate change and energy security; the danger of pandemic disease; and the need to sustain a vibrant global economy that lifts the lives of people everywhere.

c.Make notes on what ought to be done to uphold American leadership?
- Demonstrate that the model of liberty and tolerance embodied by the United States offer the best hope of a better life for people everywhere and that the terrorists, not the United States, are enemy of these universal ambitions.
- Pursue an integrated set of policies-on non-proliferation, energy and climate, global public health and economic development-which reflect a recognition that in an interdependent world,
-Policies must demonstrate a respect for differences of history, culture and tradition, while remaining true to the principles of liberty embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

d. Eliminate

e. The group merits this special status because it is the only terrorist organization with the ambition and the capability to inflict genuinely catastrophic damage. It may eventually be able to carry out a campaign of repeated attacks that would have a paralyzing effect on American life and institutions. Its ability to foil fundamental U.S. strategic goals-as it did in Iraq and as it threatens to do together with the Taliban in Afghanistan-has been amply demonstrated.

f. Counter terrorism requires a shift away from a foreign and security policy that makes counterterrorism the prism through which everything is evaluated and decided. It requires a policy that must go beyond uncompromising efforts to thwart who seek to harm us today.

g.Acquisition of nuclear or biological weapons

a) Embed-entrenched
b) Designated-selected
c) Foil-prevent/stop
d) Prism-focal point
marto answered the question on September 30, 2019 at 08:36


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