The United States citizens conduct domestic terrorisms. The existence of domestic terrorism is an area of concern. The FBI is training their agents and law enforcement on countering domestic terrorism. Cases of domestic terrorist attacks broadcasted are very few since the United States do not want the world to know about their internal enemies. A recent terrorist is a 64-year old Stephen Paddock of Nevada. Conversely, international terrorists are individuals or group of terrorists outside the United States. Many organizations and individuals have been linked with terrorism. Most of these individual terrorists are connected with the Islamic culture. Similarly, the terrorist organizations have majority being Islamic such as the Al-Qaeda and ISIS ( Schulze et al., 2013 ). A notable terrorist individual is a 29-year old Uzbekistan immigrant known as Sayfullo Saipov. He was linked to the ISIS terrorist group.
Both the domestic and international terrorists have similarities in the way they execute their attacks. They both target populated areas so that they can create more casualties. These targets include government agencies, businesses, religious buildings, airports, and military bases. Additionally, most of these areas have sensitive materials which are targeted to cause catastrophic consequences. Similarly, they use excessive force or violence to hurt victims. Their primary motive is to take lives of as many people as possible. This is due to influence from religious convictions or drugs. In both cases, the terrorist acts can be bombing, hijackings, barricade, and arsons.
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Differences exist in the target of terrorist acts. Domestic terrorism is intended to have far-reaching psychological effects. This is to instill fear in the target audience that can be a religious group, political party, or ethnic groups. On the contrary, international terrorists attack for revenge or to fight over control of nuclear weapons. The attacks are also conducted to show the capabilities of terrorists if they are provoked.
A recent example of a domestic attack is the mass shooting in Las Vegas in October. The gunman, Stephen Paddock, wounded more than 500 people while killing 58 others. He opened fire on thousands of people who were attending a concert in Nevada. The police later found him dead in his hotel room. According to the police reports, more than 20 guns were retrieved in his hotel room where he had planned the attack ( Wallace & Loffi, 2017 ). He had modified some of the guns to act as automatic weapons.
An example of a recent international terrorist attack is that by Sayfullo Saipov in New York truck attack. On 31st October 2017, he drove a truck into the pedestrian and bike path in Lower Manhattan whereby he injured 11 people and killed eight. According to John Miller, the New York deputy police commissioner for counterterrorism, Saipov has been planning the attack for a couple of weeks, and he did it in the name of ISIS ( Prokupecz et al., 2017 ).
In my opinion, domestic terrorism poses a more significant threat to the U.S than international terrorism. Domestic terrorists know America very well, and they can easily access military or structure where great harm can be done. Since citizens have a right to enjoy their privacy and freedom, it is straightforward to plan and execute an attack. Conversely, international terrorism can be avoided since the government has implemented protocols and policies for investigating and following patterns used by international terrorists.
References
Kis-Katos, K., Liebert, H., & Schulze, G. G. (2011). On the origin of domestic and international terrorism. European Journal of Political Economy , 27 , S17-S36.
Prokupecz, S., Levenson, E., Gingras, B. and Almasy, S. (2017). Source: ISIS note found near truck used in Manhattan terror attack. [online] CNN. Available at: http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/31/us/new-york-shots-fired/index.html [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].
Wallace, R. J., & Loffi, J. M. (2017). How Law Enforcement Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Could Improve Tactical Response to Active Shooter Situations: The Case of the 2017 Las Vegas Shooting. International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace , 4 (4), 7.
