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Terrorist Attacks in the USA
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Terrorist Attacks in the USA
Based on the data and trends presented in the Global Terrorism Database and further research focusing on this issue, it can be said that there are a couple of important reasons why counterterrorism and intelligence activities are so challenging. They are as follows –
Terrorism is not that Frequent Anymore
As the GTD report shows, since 2000, there have been less than 20 terrorist attacks (average figure) in the USA every year. Even the most notorious terrorist groups such as ISIS and Al-Qaida caused less than 70 terrorist attacks worldwide during this time. Most importantly, mass attacks like the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center have been even rarer. Such rarity leads to the limited capability of making accurate statistical analysis and reaching an effective policy consensus (LaFree, 2017).
Not All Terrorist Groups are the SameMost of our counterterrorism and intelligence activities have been based on some generalized policies and guidelines based on the experiences in the past. But we have to realize that modern terrorist groups are much more advanced regarding techniques, manpower, weapon, intelligence, objectives, etc. In addition to that, each group has their own agenda that is quite dissimilar to the goals of other similar terrorist groups even from the same region. As a result, instead of having a rigid and strict protocol for dealing with the actions from different groups, we should resort to more flexible guidelines and policies that would suit every terrorist group perfectly.

Unfortunately, we have not been able to reach that type of flexibility and promptness in spite of spending billions of dollars on our counterterrorism initiatives.
These are the two main factors that still make counterterrorism and intelligence activities so difficult.
References
LaFree, G. (2017). 6 reasons why stopping worldwide terrorism is so challenging. Retrieved
from http://theconversation.com/6-reasons-why-stopping-worldwide-terrorism-is-so-challenging-70626