Military Option to the Challenge of Global Terrorism: A Successful Failure?

America's sense of security was shattered by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. This has culminated in ostentatious 'war on terrorism' which, to all intents and purposes, has been misconstrued. This paper explores the historical antecedents of terrorism and the attempts at quelling it. It views the unfolding trend of the use of force to 'eliminate' terrorism as faulty. The paper believes that until the basic psychology and motivations of terrorists are understood and some of their reasonable grievances addressed, rather than stemming the tide, current approaches will exacerbate the incident of global terrorism. The paper concludes by recommending inter alia: that policy and attitudinal change rather than military bravado, will reduce the ugly incident of terrorism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]