1000 Word Excerpt

Students of terrorism in undergraduate and graduate college programs are given textbooks that describe the phenomenon of “new terrorism,” a breed of terrorism that justifies or allows for “indiscriminate” killing of an adversary. Furthermore, authoritative books such as the 9/11 Commission Report lend credibility to these terms. One part of the report plainly states that al Qaida’s “open endorsement for indiscriminate killing” was novel. These books concentrate on a group’s justification for mass casualties, as if attaining a high body count is the only objective, and can downplay or ignore other factors that are present and apparently evolving.