ABSTRACT
A lean definition of terrorism was created by a think tank in 1979 and has aged better than the dozens of others since offered to the public: Terrorism is “the deliberate and systematic murder, maiming, and menacing of the innocent to inspire fear for political ends.” Terrorism is more like war crime than war, and it usually happens during what most think to be peacetime. For many Americans, the “threat picture” seems bifurcated, like an eye chart at the optometrist’s office. Americans see a major threat from Islamism, the politicized religious extremism that has become sadly familiar in the years since September 11, 2001. The Islamist rising, which is a 20th century phenomenon most marked by the 1979 revolution in Iran, is still ongoing. Communist terrorism today is most often delivered by the hands of self-described Maoists.
