Terrorism is the use of criminal violence to force a government to change its course of action, usually to withdraw from or desist from undertaking something. It puts pressure on a government both directly and through overt threats and actions, and indirectly through instilling fear in the population. In general, terrorists prefer to target people rather than installations and often choreograph their actions to attract media attention. It is difficult to defend against terrorists, because their objectives are often outside the defender’s control, and because they always have the advantage of surprise. The prevention of terrorist attacks requires an understanding and awareness of this unconventional type of warfare, knowledge of past terrorist tactics, methods, motivations, and modus operandi, which in turn requires special intelligence operations and heavy reliance on advanced defensive technology. Retaliation operations are hampered by the elusive nature of the adversary and the inevitable collocation of innocent civilians. Terrorists have always done less damage on the whole than they must be considered capable of. For the near future, the antiterrorist mission of the Air Force will be to deal with terrorism at lower levels.
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