Essay On Homegrown Terrorism

Before taking this course I had a solid mindset and definition of what I thought was terrorism. I, like many other people in the United States had a stereotypical assumption that all foreigners, especially Muslims and Arabians hated our country and wanted to destroy America and anything and anybody affiliated with it. Upon entering this course, I tried to go in with an un-biased objective, but as we all know that is not always easy, especially when a subject like terrorism is so controversial and sensitive because of traumatic events like September 11, 2001. In my reflection paper of the course I will discuss some topics and issues that I found most interesting and challenging to my critical thinking. I will also discuss my opinions that have changed throughout the semester about terrorism and future plans of the information and knowledge that I gained during the course.
At the very beginning of the semester we discussed some defining attributes of terrorism.
Instead I will discuss the topic that I found most interesting throughout the entire semester, homegrown terrorism. As I previously stated in my introduction I have always assumed that terrorism was defined as violent attacks committed by a person of a foreign descent. The documentary that we watched about Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma Bombing definitely rearrange that idea. Many would argue that McVeigh had undergone post-partum depression after returning home from the war, but the underlying question that continues my interest in this topic is what was the triggering event in Timothy McVeigh’s life? Was it because he was a victim of post- partum or was it his dislike and feeling of being misled by the government that resulted in the