terrorism in the united states

Terrorism in the United States. Terrorism is violence-or rather a threat of violence, used to achieve a political goal. It differs from war, which is a military action formally undertaken by the government. Terrorism maybe carried out as individuals or in a group that operates stealth rather than by open assault. Government also practices terrorism by sponsoring attacks against foreign states or individuals who are seen as enemies. Terrorism in the United states has become less frequent since 1970. There were 2,608 total attacks and 226 fatal attacks in the United States between 1970 and 2011. The attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, in New York City, Arlington, and Pennsylvania are counted as just four events, even though 2,996 people died, far more fatalities than all the rest combined. If we just look at the decade between 2001 and 2011, we still see that the number of terrorist attacks has declined since Sept. 11, although the number of fatal attacks has ticked up of late. That includes a fatal shooting at a Knoxville church in 2008, the shooting at Fort Hood that killed 13 people and injured 30 in 2009, as well as the Boston marathon bombing that killed 3 and injured 264 others in 2013. Just about every part of the United states has been hit by some form of terrorist attack. New York and Virginia dominate the list of fatalities — that's because of the Sept. 11 attacks. (Pennsylvania is also up there, because of Flight 93.) After that is Oklahoma, mainly because 168 people died in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Puerto Rico, which is counted here, ranks third in number of attacks in large part because of the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional, a paramilitary separatist group that was responsible for more than 120 bombings in the 1970s and 1980s. Since the bombing in Oklahoma City, a greater portion of terrorist attacks in the U.S have been carried out by indivduals rather than groups. Bombings have long been the tactic of choice for terrorists in the