What do symbols hold special importance for terrorism and counterterrorism?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• Asymmetrical war is waged against symbolic targets, and homeland security is designed to secure symbols.
• Just because a target has symbolic significance does not mean it lacks physical reality.
• The bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, for example, had symbolic value, and the casualties were horrific.
• Attacks against symbols disrupt support structures and can have a high human toll. Defensive measures are put in place to protect both the physical safety of people and property as well as the symbolic meaning of a target
• Grenville Byford points out that symbolic attack may simply be designed to inflict massive casualties; that is, killing people has a symbolic value.
• Killing civilians serves a political purpose for terrorists – American citizens contribute economically to the well-being of the country, and because they participate in a democracy, they ultimately control military policy.
• Targeting them may have practical as well as symbolic value.
• Rather than engaging in political rhetoric about morality it is more productive to understand that Americans represent symbolic targets of military value.
• Symbolic terrorism is a dramatic attack to show vulnerability.
• Terrorists use symbolic attacks or attacks on symbols to achieve pragmatic or systematic results.
• Symbols can have literal and abstract meanings, such as a capitol that serves literally and abstractly as the seat of governmental power.
• The key to security is to offer protection without destroying abstract meanings.
• All societies create symbols, and American democracy is no different.
• In a time of asymmetrical war, American symbols demand protection; the key is to make symbolic targets as secure as possible while giving the illusion that very few security precautions have been taken.