Outcome Based Terrorism

It has been almost a month now since Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan used a high capacity FN 5.7mm handgun to murder 12 soldiers and one civilian, and wound almost three dozen others at Fort Hood in Texas.  Many pundits are labeling the Major’s attack on his fellow soldiers as “the first terrorist attack since 9/11.”  Time Magazine even had him on their front cover with the question “Terrorist?”    But does he really fit the classic definition of a “terrorist”?  

Was his rampage at Ft Hood really “Terrorism”?  What if it been perpetrated on a street in Basra, Kandahar or Kabul?  Of course being the coward that Hasan is, he chose Fort Hood.  Had he committed his attack against American soldiers in any of those cities, the Americans would have been able to shoot back…Thank you Bill Clinton for turning our domestic military bases into “gun free zones”.     

In Basra, Kandahar or Kabul, or Gaza, Haifa or Beirut, such acts are random enough that the residents have learned to adapt to such instances.  Just as Americans living along the south Atlantic and Gulf coasts have learned to live under the threat of hurricanes, or folks in the mid-west have adapted to the potential of tornados and residents of California have adapted to the threat of fires, earthquakes and their own government.  People adapt to the possibility of having car accident, or an apartment fire or being a victim of some criminal act.  None of these maladies fall into the definition of “terror” as we still go about our daily lives as we would normally.

Think about the actual definition of Terrorism.  Merriam-Webster defines it as “the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion.”  Dictionary.com says terrorism is 1) the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce…, and 2) the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization. And history shows us that acts of terror are an efficient tool of warfare. 

After bombing the World Trade Center in 1993, Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda knew that they did not accomplish any of their objectives.  There was no panic in the aftermath of the attack, no changes in anyone’s daily lives.  The citizens of New York still went about their normal lives.   But eight years later, the enemy was able to accomplish exactly what is defined by terrorism.  To this day, when President Obama’s Jumbo Jet circled over the Statue of Liberty, escorted by two F-16 fighter jets, there was panic in the streets of New York… from the memory… the terror… that was instilled seven years earlier.