How should we judge the success of the War on Terror?
Going by the numbers, terrorism has a high success rate and is increasingly being used as a political tool. George Bush may have unwittingly done more than anybody else – by declaring a War on Terror – to legitimise the use of terror as a tool of effecting political change. He only elevated and enshrined “Terror” as an object worthy of State warfare. My working theory is that giving Terror this elevated status only increases its attractiveness as a legitimate tool for any group which perceives itself to be oppressed or wishes to foment rebellion.
The 2014 Global Terrorism Index has just been released with data upto 2013.
KEY FACTS:
- 17,958 people were killed in terrorist attacks last year, that’s 61% more than the previous year.
- 82% of all deaths from terrorist attack occur in just 5 countries: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria.
- Last year terrorism was dominated by four groups: the Taliban, Boko Haram, ISIL, and al Qa’ida.
- More than 90% of all terrorist attacks occur in countries that have gross human rights violations.
- 40 times more people are killed by homicides than terrorist attacks.
Why not declare a War on Murder since murder kills 40 times more people than terror?
In 2000 deaths from terrorism were 3,361.
The report is here and I have extracted just two telling diagrams. The number of terror deaths have increased dramatically and the “success rate” of terrorist actions remains high at about 90%.
Terrorism Deaths
Terror success rates
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