Terrorist Attacks and Presidents

[Joanne98]

I compiled a pair of graphs to illustrate incidents of terrorism during each of the last three presidents, including President Obama, as a means of locking down what happened and when.

In terms of methodology, I covered the following types of terrorist attacks against American personnel, civilians and interests:

1) Domestic (Abortion-related attacks, Oklahoma City, Unabomber, Anthrax)

2) Domestic Islamic (9/11, WTC 1993, Beltway Snipers, Chapel Hill)

3) Overseas Islamic (Iraq, Afghanistan, USS Cole, Embassy Bombings)

4) Known Failed Attempts (Shoe Bomber, Underpants Bomber)

5) Overseas Attacks Against U.S. Allies (London, Madrid).

These categories should cover the basic forms of terrorist attacks against Americans whether abroad or on our soil.







UPDATE: I created a third graph as a variation of the attacks graph. I eliminated Obama, as he's only been president for 11 months. I also dropped the domestic abortion attacks and the failed attacks. Additionally, I eliminated any attacks that took place in Iraq and Afghanistan. The resulting graph, reflecting only domestic and Islamic terrorism, is still pretty damning of the Bush record. I also added a Domestic Islamic attack in the Bush column -- the Chapel Hill SUV attack.



Regarding Iraq and Afghanistan, I recommend taking a look at this link. The number of overseas attacks against U.S. targets outside of Afghanistan and Iraq during the Bush presidency are considerable. 11 attacks according to this source, all involving U.S. personnel.

UPDATE 2: Made some small numerical corrections to the attacks graphs.

UPDATE 3: Added the Holocaust Museum shootings to the Obama column.

(A more thorough listing of sources after the jump...)

The number of terrorist attacks are as close to comprehensive as possible. I culled the lists of attacks and total fatalities from the following sources:

1) Chronology of Major Terrorist Attacks Against U.S. Targets

2) Terrorist Attacks (within the United States or against Americans abroad)

3) Notable attacks associated with domestic terrorism

4) The Unabomber

5) Abortion Violence in the United States

6) Beltway Sniper Attacks (which were prosecuted under terrorism laws)

7) Ft. Hood Shooting (I've classified this as a domestic Islamic terrorist attack as a concession to righties.)

8) The LAX Shooting

9) Madrid Train Bombings

10) London Bombings

11) Anthrax Attacks

12) Richard Reid (Shoe Bomber)

13) Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (Underpants Bomber)

--I tried to be as fair as possible. I have included the Beltway Snipers, for example, as a terrorist attack because they were prosecuted under terrorism statutes. In exchange, I have made a concession to classify the Ft. Hood shootings as an act of terrorism rather than as a multiple homicide.

--Also, I don't claim 100 percent accuracy on the totals, but they're as close as possible based upon the above sources. I would estimate a margin of error around +/-3 attacks, and +/-100 fatalities.

--You will also see that the fatalities under Bush were considerable. That number includes the 2,992 fatalities on 9/11, along with the 10 Beltway Sniper fatalities and the 2 LAX shooting fatalities. All three attacks were carried out by Islamic radicals.

--The Clinton domestic number is pretty large due to the number of abortion-related attacks by right-wing extremists. There were, based on my sources, 13 abortion-related attacks with 12 fatalities.

Continued>>>>
http://www.bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2010/01/terrorist_attac.html

[hypocrisyandlies]

1. I think it is still important to remember

that Clinton and Bush both had 8 years for these attacks to happen. Obama has only had one year so far. So while the evidence for Clinton and Bush can be compared this way, it is a little unfair at this point to say that Obama has had the fewest attacks.