Has terrorism ever worked?

A simple question for the minds of ATS: Has terrorism ever worked?

Has the use of terror tactics ever resuted in a terror group achieving its goals? Has the use of suicide bombers, car bombs, hijackings, airline bombings and kidnappings worked? Or have these tactics just resulted in a stronger retaliation resulting in failure?

Has any group surrendered outright because of these tactics?

Now to clarify I don't mean gurellia warfare such as in Vietnam, Iraq or even the French resistance in WW2. I mean outright terrorism not in the context of war. Not in a situation where a group is fighting an occupying army.

I honestly cannot think of a time it worked. Can you? Be it modern times or antiquity.

If the hypothesis that it never works is accurate what is the actual goal of terror? The "terrorists" must understand that it does not and has not ever worked and their goals will remain unachieved.
So what is the point?

It certainly has worked.
It got the US into Afghanistan and Iraq where it wanted to be.
Control the oil and the opium, what Goverment could ask for easier money than that?

I suppose it depends on your definition of "terrorism".

Some people would call the interference by Coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan as terrorism, also the same goes for the otherside..... It just depends what side of the fence you sit i suppose!

The two British operatives, arrested by Basra police and later freed by a British military operation, were identified by the BBC as “members of the SAS elite special forces”
(news.bbc.co.uk... ).

They were disguised by wigs and Arab dress. Iraqi sources reported that the Iraqi police were watching the two, and when they tried to approach them they shot two policemen and tried to escape the scene. The Iraqi police chased and captured them, to discover large amount of explosives planted in the car, which apparently was planned to be remotely detonated in the busy market of Basra.



Also if you take into consideration the events of false flags by our elitist overlords then yes...... Terrorism does work!

Well,the kind of terrorism that politicians use (with various forms) to manipulate the citizens actually works,maybe even most of the times.

So,if you'll ask me,the result depends on with whom the terrorists are cooperating.


Like Master Shen long said,it depends on what you mean by the word "terrorism".

The only difference between guerrilla warfare and terrorism are the targets, guerrilla warfare targeting military installations and terrorism targeting civilians.

That said, one could never win a war through terrorism alone. Rather it is a supporting tactic designed to sway public opinion about a conflict and reduce the target countries willingness to fight. By supporting other offensive actions with terrorism, many people have enjoyed success through terrorism.

The most notable example that comes to mind is the First Chechen War.

While a group of irregular Chechen fighters were involved in guerrilla fighting in Chechnya, several terrorist cells spread throughout Russia. They performed all manner of terrorist acts, from hijacking a plane in Cyprus and a cruise ship bound for Turkey to kidnapping whole Russian villages and hospitals.

Within years, Russia was forced to sign an unfavorable treaty recognizing Chechnya as an independent country. This is largely due to low Russian morale, most often associated with the aforementioned terrorist acts.

So there is at least one example. Another you may care to look up is the French-Indochina War.

TERRORISM
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion. At present, there is no internationally agreed definition of terrorism. Common definitions of terrorism refer only to those acts which are intended to create fear (terror), are perpetrated for an ideological goal (as opposed to a lone attack), and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants.

Sounds like every federal/state agency in America. All the agencies use is fear to acheive their goals. Threats of imprisonment, garnashing your wages, putting leins on your possesions or just outright taking everything you own including your life.

I would like to open the eyes of the naive. We have millions possibly billions of laws and they keep making new ones. Every manmade law was only put into existence to be manipulated in the favor of the terrorists who created them.They are the onbes who make and break the same laws they created without any consequences and reap ALL the benefits, yet they label us criminals.

They throw the word GOD and morality around like they're going out of style.They claim to use this as their basis for the laws they pass, yet their actions say something different from their words.

I never raided a country and murdered millions or had/have anyone under my command who has done so.I have not killed millions of innocent civilians and claimed it was collateral damage. I'm not the one who claims we need a bailaout within days or our economy collapses, or who robbed 700 billion from taxpayers yaet the money doesn't go to it's intended use while they reap financially. I'm not the one who claims the bailout needs time to work so lets shell out(rob the taxpayers of) another 850 billion.

These are just the tip of the iceburg.There is no "COMING BACK" from thisI don't care if you put GOD himself in office. It's too far gone and needs to be restructered from scratch.

I can go on forever, but the simple fact is.........

They want to rule all and will committ any act by any means necessary to do so. They are the criminals and hypocrites. Every singlew politician has blood on their hands. Don't let the slick words fool you.......

It's The Governing powers who are the TERRORISTS.







[edit on 30/1/2009 by Revealation]

[edit on 30/1/2009 by Revealation]

It worked in Spain.

Terrorists got Spain to get out of Iraq and ever since then Spain's voice in the world has been diminished.

Good question.

I think the main difficulty in analysing your question is the definition of "terrorist".

Mandela and the ANC were considered terrorists by many nations; and in the end they were lauded as heros, and certainly achieved their goal in South Africa.

Again, Mugabe+Nkomo and ZAPU/ ZANU were labelled as terrorists, and they achieved their objectives.


Contraversial view, but I think terrorism can work, provided that the terrorists have an actual cause and enough public support.

Will al-qaeda win? Probably not. They don't have a real/ achievable goal other than to hurt the USA.

Then of course you have to consider the other approaches to terorrism : state terrorism such as Stalin, grassroots communal terrorism such as Hitler etc. Those were certainly effective in furthering the power of the authorities.

I agree with the other posters with the question of what defines terrorism?

Terrorism and terrorist actions do work, as they do inspire terror. It also has a lasting affect. It divides people against each other.

Think about this, do you look at Arabic people the same as you used to? If you question even just a little bit if that person might be plotting something, then terrorism has worked. If you have altered your travel plans because of the simple reason of skin color of someone on your conveyance of choice, terrorism has worked.

When you walk down the street think about the way you see people. This will give you a major indicator of the way the world has influenced you.

It doesn't matter what form terrorism takes, whether its the form of a suicide bomber, or the form of a government instilling fear into you for the expressed purpose of promoting and furthering their own political objectives. Terrorism is terrorism, its simple goal, to divide people and leave people in fear, that is it's objective, and it does work.

The definition of terrorism is rahter very simple and to the point. The name says it all.

To create TERROR is to create fear, and we know the fear is created to accomplish a specific goal. Whether the goal be financial prosperity, power, independence or to just make people afraid (fear you).

So to achieves on specific goal by creating fear.

Problem is people try to manipulate every single word ever said, to their benefit. Funny how words mean something specific yet when one speaks those specific words, everyone tries to analize them and come up with a different meaning. A good example is the justice system is always manipulating words to reach a different meaning.

If words don't have the meanings that we were taught and applied to them, why the hell do we continue to speak. "I say what I mean and mean what I say." If I wanted to mean something different I would use different words.

I honestly can't believe for how brilliant some minds are, people can be such ignorant morons. The answer to life is simplicity. Stop trying to brainstorm and come up with dillusional fantasies and false realities.

It could be said that the IRA won in Northern Ireland - to an extent.

They won many concessions from the british government, and still haven't given up all their arms, they have a power sharing deal and representation at local and national level in the guise of Sinn Fein, they also had prisoners released who had been convicted of terrorist activities including murder, and are now a powerfull political force.

9/11 turned US into a facist police state. Regardless who did it, it worked like magic.

[edit on 30/1/2009 by PsykoOps]

Originally posted by PsykoOps
9/11 turned US into a facist police state. Regardless who did it, it worked like magic.

[edit on 30/1/2009 by PsykoOps]

I beg your pardon! I've lived here all of my life and have not onced been asked for my "papers" nor denied absolute and free movement throughout my country. What police state?

Lucky you. The exception that confirms the rule.

It's worked pretty well for the Palestinian cause. They've been able to use terrorism to make the world sympathetic to their cause which, in reality, shouldn't be a major issue at all.

Click here for more information.

Originally posted by budski
It could be said that the IRA won in Northern Ireland - to an extent.

Not as much as it could be said they did win the 26 Southern Counties...

The Irish Republic Exists because of the Battles fought by the Irish Republican Brotherhood - and later - the Army.






[edit on 3-2-2009 by Exuberant1]

Terror is a tactic, much like flanking, encirclement, hide and show, but terror is used to create fear and dread in an enemy. No tactic, especially terror works for very long as any tactic has a counter tactic.

Jam was right. It did work in Spain.

I speak in terms of those who have a swinging pair.

What happens is that men with a swinging pair, when exposed to terror, will begin to ruthlessly begin to counter those tactics with terror tactics of their own.

Let me explain.

When you start using terrorism as a tactic, you really piss off some very good men, men who will hunt your ass down, and make you and yours pay, and pay dearly for opening the ball.

You'll note that many of those who engage in terror, especially the leaders of terrorism, die a miserable-assed, violent death.

And they usually take a number of their friends with them.

Once you piss good men off, just because you stop using terrorism, doesn't mean these good men quit coming after you. They don't quit. They never forget.

And that's why it's not a real good idea for sane, rational, prudent people to start using terror tactics.

In Viet Nam, the [SNIP] were masters of guerrilla warfare, and to a large degree, they engaged in tactics designed to create dread and fear in the American troops.

By 1971 and 1972, the Americans were winning every battle, had learned how to fight the Vietnamese forces arrayed against them, and in fact were very successfully engaging Vietnamese forces with the same, identical, and sometimes improved tactics.

And the Vietnamese didn't like these semi-terror tactics any more than the American did.

Just be careful what you start, because you may not like how it ends.

Mod edit: Removed ethnic slur.

[edit on 3-2-2009 by Gemwolf]

Originally posted by exfed

Originally posted by PsykoOps
9/11 turned US into a facist police state. Regardless who did it, it worked like magic.

[edit on 30/1/2009 by PsykoOps]

I beg your pardon! I've lived here all of my life and have not onced been asked for my "papers" nor denied absolute and free movement throughout my country. What police state?

Then you haven't flown recently, have you?

reply to post by drock905


Yes it has worked.

Whether you believe these things are government controlled false-flag events or enacted by outside terror organizations.

The governments gained their support (or more than they would have otherwise) to go into Afghanistan and Iraq. The people allowed various freedoms to be restricted, or entirely revoked in response to it.

Americans allowed the Patriot act, allowed massive spying and limited anti-government sentiment. Moles were placed into any groups even questioning the actions of government. America allowed their government to act with less oversight than ever before, without questioning or any real challenge.
And now we're seeing the true damage this has caused. Lists and databases containing the details of millions of innocent Americans, phone, email and internet monitoring, credit card use being recorded... you name it they did it and all under the banner of "fighting terrorism". And it was all done because no one thought to question or challenge their government.

America allowed the torture of detainees. How does that make America any safer or morally superior to any other nation?

In Britain, the push for national ID cards has ridden on the back of 7/7 and 9/11. CCTV exists like nowhere else.
We have licenses to work in specific fields where the applications process is similar to an MoD background check.
We've extended the detention period allowed without charge. But at least we didn't make it legal to kidnap and hold indefinitely!

The supposed goal of outside terrorists is to destroy our way of life, and our governments are doing this for them.
A terrorist attack actually hurts or damages a very small minority of people in comparison to the population, while easily curable diseases and general poverty are allowed to harm millions unchecked.
The event doesn't justify the response.

Personally, I truly believe that common sense and evidence suggests that each government either planned these events or allowed them to happen through inaction.

The people who have benefited the most are our governments with tighter control of the population, a pseudo-dictatorship where the media is manipulated to push the false line. These acts have allowed governments to claim oil, claim land, remove freedoms, refuse questions, advance the wealth of specific corporations and connected companies...
It's a massive con, whichever way you look at it and whoever you believe caused the attacks.