Past Terrorist Tactics and Counter-Tactics - Essay Example

The history of terrorism is traced many years back as it is as old as a human being’s willingness to apply violence to attain political power. History reveals that Sicarii was among the first communities of the Jewish to murder a group of enemies to dominate Judea. About today’s terrorism, there is a great difference as many of these nations battle to attain political power. However, there is a great difference in the tactics used by militants during those early days.

This is following the growth and advancement in technology. The tactics are also more sophisticated as there are communities who have been in war for years, thus specializing in the field. Ideal examples are the Muslim world (Wardlaw, 2009)Common terror tactics used in the early days were militants would get to a battlefield and fight their enemies until one side surrendered. However, there were instances where attacks were guerrilla. A community would be attacked when least expected and they would be all killed and some captured for sale as slaves.

Modern terrorism started in the 19th century and has reached undesirable levels in the 20th and 21st centuries. This has come with tactics such as bombings, which are the most common. This evolved in the first phase of modern terrorism.