Report #2 Terrorism

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Terrorism has a longstanding history and it has continuously evolved to some very destructive modern day forms. The revolutionary French government coined the term terrorism through the systemic terror activities against the French citizens in the 1790s.Similar activities prevailed in Germany and United Stated through Baader-Meinh of Gang and weather Underground respectively. Terrorists are people who commit criminal activities with an aim of amassing attention from the local people, the government and the international audience to their cause. A terrorist is one that is able to plan an attack that attracts the highest publicity against targets that are symbols of their opposition. Their ultimate objective is instilling fear to as many people.
One of the terror groups in history is the Irish Republican Army (IRA) started in 1919 during the establishment of the Irish state. Conflict over governance in Ireland was the motivation for the emergence of IRA terror activities throughout Europe. The terror group targeted civilians and military perceived to be loyalists that supported the status quo that the British maintain rule over part of Ireland. The group was reinvented as the provisional IRA in the late 1960s and is reported to have killed 1,740 people by 2001. PIRA instigated terror activities that significantly affected Northern Ireland, Great Britain and mainland Europe. PIRA and Britain agreed on a ceasefire in 1994 but they broke it in 1996. They continued terror activities such as bombing subway stations in mainland Britain trading areas and military targets in Northern Ireland and the larger Europe.
The IRA terror group received funding from Libya, Palestine Liberation Organization and other sympathizers in the United States (Sanchez-Cuenca, 2004). Some IRA factions also resorted to bank robberies and smuggling to raise money for their attacks (Mesquita, 2003). Many Irish people fled to America during the ninetieth and early twentieth century owing to brutal British rule. The US allowed the Northern Aid Committee (NORAID) to raise money from US citizens in support of IRA activities. The support from NORAID was at an all-time high after the 1972 Blood Sunday that saw British military kill fourteen Irish Catholic protesters (Byman, 2005).
The other terror group is the Palestinian PFLP that was established in 1967 is motivated by a cause to attract international attention to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. The terror group engages in activities such as place hijacks, kidnapping journalists to assert their demands for a Palestinian state. Some of its attacks include suicide bombings at Karnei Shomron in west bank and at a bus station in Tel Aviv each killing three Israeli’s (Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, 2001). It is a nationalist movement dedicated to terminating Israel and establishing a Marxist-Leninist Palestinian state. It opposes the Palestinian-Israeli peace process and furthers violence against Israel. In 2001, the terror group assassinated a tourism minister in Israel (National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, 2010).
Another terror activity occurred during Robespierre reign between 1793 and 1794 that instigated killings of France enemies and foreign invaders. Robespierre set up a committee of public safety with an aim of legislating and protecting his government. It enacted new laws that saw people imprisoned without trial, where no evidence was need and subject political prisoners to death sentence. He identified internal enemies and would sanction their public execution. He used guillotine to ward off counter revolution and he believed that terror would create a republic of virtue. Robespierre guillotined sixteen thousand people over a nine month period (Linton, 2006).
Terrorist groups commit violent attacks to instigate fear and create damage by targeting both the military and innocent civilians. In the twentieth century, nationalist and ethnic groups such as the Irish and Macedonians used terror...