Terrorism has truly become war, and we need to rethink how we fight it

The terror attack in Mumbai should serve as a sign to decision-makers and strategic analysts in recognizing that the accepted approach to terrorism has become anachronistic and mistaken. The world largely deals with terror attacks as sporadic, sensationalistic, and singular events. The tragedy and pain involved in these events elicits a response of anger, fury, and sadness, but the terror attacks are not viewed as undercutting the authority and power of the state in which the terror attack takes place. During the period in which Palestinian terror focused on airline attacks, a leader of one of the Palestinian terror organizations was asked in an interview, "What advantage does your organization gain from a shocking incident that results in the murder of hundreds of innocent civilians?" His answer was, "I receive attention. In the two minutes in which the entire world is giving me their attention, I can send a message about the injustice being done to me." Since this time, terrorism has gone through a series of changes. For a long period, terrorists attempted to harm the public, bringing attention to the message that they were trying to promote. The Vietnam War changed the terrorist organizations' conception, and brought to the forefront the notion that a terrorist army is not meant only to "sting" the enemy, but that in the end, it has the ability to be victorious...............

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