Summary

Despite the fact we’ve made it clear homeland security is NOT about terrorism, there is no avoiding the subject. United States Code T18 S2331 defines terrorism as a violent act designed to coerce US government. Accordingly, terrorism is a crime distinguished by motive. Terrorism is also a strategy adopted by smaller parties to overcome larger ones. The basic strategy is to pit one’s strength against the other’s weakness. An essential tenet is to avoid a confrontation which the larger party can win. Terrorism is as old as civilization. There are also many theories explaining terrorism, societal and psychological, but nobody has found a single common cause. Domestic terrorists are US residents who commit a terrorist act but their actions aren’t directed by a foreign source. International terrorists are foreign agents who commit terrorist acts in the US or against UC citizens and property overseas. Neither are easy to find and capture. Domestic terrorists are protected by the Fourth Amendment from unreasonable search, and the First Amendment makes it difficult to distinguish terrorist conspiracy from free speech. International terrorists are also hard to distinguish because one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter; consider how the British viewed Sam Adams and the Sons of Liberty in 1775. As a direct result of 9/11, the primary US terrorist concern today is that stemming from Islamic Extremism. A 2017 Pew Research survey found 83% of Americans are concerned about Islamic terrorism. The fear seems disproportionate considering that from 2006 to 2015, less than 12.5% of US terrorist attacks were perpetrated by Muslims. It also overlooks the fact that since 9/11, only about 300 Americans have lost their lives to domestic terrorist attack. You have a greater chance of being killed by lightning than terrorism. An unfortunate consequence of these concerns is that they have fueled discrimination and even violence against Muslim Americans. It is time for the hatred to stop.