Introduction To Terrorism

Submitted By crumbybooks
Words: 561
Pages: 3

Sheila R. Crumby
Introduction to Terrorism – 4
Instructor: Season Groves
Week 1 Individual Assignment

Terrorism has been around for a very long time, although it has not really been on the minds of people until the events of 911 occurred which has heightened all of our awareness of the act of terrorism. Although terrorism is a very real occurrence not every incident is an act of terrorism. The act of terrorism is very widely defined by different departments in our government and others, the basic criteria for terrorism are; acts of violence, designed to create a mood of fear in an audience, for political/social motives, targeting people who are not engaged in combat (Combs, 2013). In April of 1999, two (2) students at Columbine High School opened up an attack on their fellow classmates, there were fifteen (15) deaths and more than twenty (20) injuries some were critical. The two young men were juniors at the school who had been bullied by others this made them feel like outcasts, so to seek their revenge they decided to create a massacre at the school and commit suicide in the process. The reason I am likening this to terrorism is due to the definition of terrorism that states it will be defined as a” synthesis of war and theater, a dramatization of the most prescribed kind of violence – that which is deliberately perpetrated on civilian noncombatant victims – played before an audience in the hope of creating a mood of fear, for political purposes” (Combs, 2013). Although they were not trying to be political in any way I still feel that they were trying to put fear into others for their own personal reasons. If I were to use one of the typologies I would have to say it would be Random terror, I say this due the fact that there were bombs placed around the school. During November of 2003 a plane that was carrying soldiers who were engaged in peace keeping and nation building was shot down by an air missile. Sixteen (16) of the men aboard the plane were killed as they were on their way home for a brief leave, this was done by Iraqi groups that were looking to force the United States