perfect terrorist

Name
Instructor
Course
Date
Perfect Terrorist
Frequent repetition of occurrence of incidences of terrorism in the media channels across all the six continents of the world has created a new frightening rhythm in the news bulletins. Terrorism, in general, has advanced to the next level from what used to be traditional molds of terrorism recruitments to the modern ways that terrorist groups employ the use of the internet, more so social media in luring youths to join them. However, as the terrorism seems to have evolved over the recent past, the Story of David Coleman Headley can be said to be a well fit in the traditional molds of terrorist recruitment since it occurred at the time when innovative technology was getting appreciated in many parts of the world. This essay, therefore, relates the story of David Coleman Headley to the role poverty plays in terrorist recruitment.
The story of David Coleman Headley can be said to be a well fit in the traditional molds of terrorist recruitment. In the past decades, the innovative technology was not much advanced as it is in the current world. This simply means that there were no incidences of using social media to as a platform to recruit terrorists. The use of internet in the past decades was limited to some few individuals from elite families. It, therefore, meant that terrorists who lured energetic young people in the society only targeted the individuals from families that probably lived on big budget hence could afford to use the internet as part of their leisure venues.

Nonetheless, David Coleman Headley was born in a well-off family before seeing his parents separate and being forced to be raised up by a single father. However when Headley later moved to stay with his mother who lived extremely good life as she even owned a bar in America.
The idea of David Coleman Headley living on the same premise that his mother had set a bar business on and it is this idea that his moral character underwent erosion to the extent that he even embarked on trafficking drugs, heroin to be precise. David Coleman Headley was a drug smuggler due to the interaction with bar life in his residential environment. Later, Headley became a Drug Enforcement Agency informant. With his influential English command, he was a huge asset for the organization.
The trust that anti-drugs and anti-terrorism bodies had in David Coleman is the one that led to frequent missions being directed from the authorities that David was supposed to unfold some sensitive information (Martin 40). Since David Coleman Headley had some basics of military training after being sent to an elite military school by his father while he was still in Pakistan, he fits well in the assignments allocated to him and his work was recommendable.
According to Pregulman, “that kind of launches him into this crescendo of activities in the late ’90s — where he’s working as a DEA informant but also radicalizing.” This, therefore, resulted in once trusted American ant-drugs and anti-terrorism informant hooked with a terrorist group that he was supposed to inform the relevant authorities about the whereabouts of the group. David Coleman Headley, therefore, joined Laskar-e-Taiba, an Islamic militant group, and began taking trips that were not authorized by his bosses to train with the terrorists.
From David Coleman story of how joined a terrorist group in the 21st century, it can easily be deduced that the character used the traditional mold of terrorist recruitment that involved a physical introduction to the group which was also a risky affair. This is opposite to the modern ways of radicalization that terrorist groups use the internet, more so social media, in luring the target individuals to join them hence a divergent channel as compared to the traditional molds of terrorist recruitment.
Having a closer look at the story of David Coleman Headley, a can get to understand that terrorism is directly or rather positively related to the levels of poverty within societies. It is evident that Headley was a good boy while he was still under the care of his father in Pakistan. He was detached to numerous stimuli that lure individuals to join terrorism or in general those lifestyles that derails individuals’ morals. It is likely expected that David Coleman could have remained morally upright had he continued being under the care of his biological father in Pakistan.
On the contrary, being left to make individual decisions in the much-tempting world for youths is something that can be disastrous given the nature of the modern lifestyles. The bar environment served as the foundation stone to the erosion of the good morals of David Coleman Headley (Krueger 28). Though it was difficult at first to adapt after moving from Pakistan, David fit well in the drugs activities that he even became a smuggler. This part of Headley’s life played a major role in recruitment in a terrorist group. This can be connected to the poor conditions that David was exposed to living after coming back to America.

Works cited
Krueger, Alan B., and Jitka Maleckova. “Does poverty cause terrorism?.” The New Republic 226.24 (2002): 27-33.
Martin, Gus. Essentials of terrorism: Concepts and controversies. Sage Publications, 2013.
Pregulman, Ally, and Emily Burke. Homegrown terrorism. Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2012.