6 Purposes of Terrorism

6 Purposes of Terrorism

The textbook says it best. The primary purpose, direction, and focus of terrorism is fear. It goes on to break it down into different functions by several authors, Crenshaw being one of them. He states the first purpose is to seize political power. This has been practiced through the centuries and still exists today. From Roman emperors to terrorist leaders like Saddam Hussein, their purpose has been to be the political leaders of their countries. The problem with this is someone usually has the political aspirations they did and will use the same methods to overthrow the government to fulfill their own desires. The second purpose is to affect public opinion and seize the media. We can see this best by what happened on 9/11. It's ten...