Terror from Within

In the United States, especially following 9/11, there has been widespread awareness and identification of threats of malicious nature against the nation. When thinking about such threats and protecting the nation, the debate as to whether all of these things can be labelled as terrorism has arisen. To be frank, questioning whether an American citizen attacking a place in the US should be considered terrorism or not is a valid question of the meaning of the word and concept itself. For me, terrorism can come from within a country, and has elements of premeditation, motive, and organization. This last statement definitely comes to head with a lot of opposition, and many have contrary ideas of the characteristics of terrorism. However,it is important to consider the notion that terrorism is a label that is often utilized on to chastise the malicious party politically when the receiving party sees fit. From this, it is important to consider a polarizing event of this nature such as the January 6^th march on the capitol of the United States. This event was a protest for the outcome of the election. While this event can be considered a protest, I would still define it as terrorism because while it was perpetrated by citizens of the U.S., the motives were organized, and did turn malicious as law enforcement was assaulted. The whole point of this example is to display that terrorism can come from within a country. It is likely that people that disagree with the outcome of the election do not consider this event terrorism, because their motives and interests are shared with those who went to the event. While terrorism as a concept is disagreed upon, it is important to note that the term has a lot do do with perception, but personally I think it can be uniformly applied when an event is perpretrated by an organized person or group of people with a malicious motive against a political body of some fashion.