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The primary goal of terrorists is to instill fear and terror.
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To take QRQ30 's point on the primary goal of terrorists and go one step further, QRQ 30's point is well-taken as to the effect of their actions against their 'targets.'
But don't they also use their actions to rally their own in support of their cause ? Along that train of thought, I find this to be more succinct than my words could be:
" The terrorists are cruel, but they are not aimless. Their actions have a purpose. They are trying to rally the Muslim world to jihad against the planet's only superpower and the principal and most visible obstacle to their ambitions.
They committ terror to persuade their potential followers that their cause is not hopeless, that jihad can destroy American power. (my emphasis) Random killings - shootings in shopping malls, bombs in trash cans - may be emotionally satisfying to the terrorists', but they are strategically useless: Two kids at Columbine did as much, and the Republic did not totter. Only truly spectacular acts of mass murder provides the propaganda the terrorists' cause requires. They will try again - they have to."
An End to Evil by David Frum and Richard Perle
Roycroft201