[Jennifer H.]

Terrorism is a suprise attack. Terrorism is ‘succesful’ because it strikes a reaction in millions of people that they are never safe and can’t rely on their own government to protect them. Terrorism is not simply one country attacking another (as in the response above that depicts conventional war in the Middle East as terrorism just becuase it’s a foreign attack.) The key here is that in the case of Iraq, for example, they knew that they were going to be hit and had the time to prepare a best they could. 9/11 on the other hand, is defined as a terrorist attack because we did not know it was coming, could not prepare for it and it raised a fear in millions of Americans that they could never be safe and would never know when the next attack was coming. Successful terrorism also relies on the fluidity of it’s networks. Just as terrorism makes you unsure of when or where the next attack will take place, the U.S. has difficulty militarily targeting who is responsible for the attack. Individuals within the terrorist network are constantly moving, making sure that only a very selected few know of their whereabouts. This makes them difficult to target versus a war with another country where you can simply bomb key locations, such as a presidential palace or otehr government building. In addition, terrorist networks, while harbored by various countries, do not particularly identify with single country. This makes it difficult for the U.S. to attack them because they can not invade the soveirgn nation, unless that nation is clearly protecting the terrorist’s interests/ location. To sum – terrorism relies on suprise, breeds fear within a population that no longer feels safe in it’s daily activities and is virtually impossible to target using conventional means.

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Name : Jennifer H., Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 22, City : Berkeley, State : CA, Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

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