ETA in comparison to other terrorist organisations

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  When discussing terrorism within Spain, it is also useful to compare it with terrorism in other countries and the different tactics used. From using this comparison, we can see just how dangerous and active ETA are and if other terrorist organisations are more deadly in their attacks and casualties they are responsible for. The following list include some other well known terrorist organisations and the deaths they have caused from their activities:
  
  
• Aceh Sumatra Liberation Front (ASLF) (Indonesia) - active from 1976 till 2005: responsible for approximately 15,000 deaths
• IRA (Northern Ireland) - active from 1969 till 1997: responsible for approximately 1,800 deaths
• Red Brigade (Italy) - active from 1969 till 1980: responsible for approximately 250 deaths
• Red Army Faction (Germany) - active from late 1960s till 1998: responsible for approximately 34 deaths
• Al Qaeda (Global) - active from 1990 till present day: responsible for approximately 3,847 deaths
• Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Sri Lanka) - active from 1976 till present day: responsible for over 35,000 deaths
• Various Extremists (Argentina) - active from 1974 till 1976: responsible for approximately 2,300 deaths
• Various Dissident Groups (Turkey) - active from 1975 till 1980: responsible for over 5,000 deaths
• ETA (Spain) - active from 1959 till present day: responsible for over 800 deaths
  

As we can see, there are other terrorist organisations that have been much more successful in causing death in the name of their cause, whether it be religious (Al Qaeda), independence (IRA, Tamil Tigers, ASLF) or ideological (Red Brigade, Red Army Faction). However these organisations cannot be simply compared by number of deaths caused, as it ould be argued that it is not ETA's aim to cause maximised fatalities, whereas this could be Al Qaeda objective.

Some of these organisations differ from ETA in in the methods they use to carry out their activities, for example in the use of suicide attacks. Such attacks with bombs can be more deadly since the detonation can occur at the last minute or when casualties will be maximised. For example the Tamil Tigers have carried out more suicide bombings than Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Al Qaeda combined. Other differences include the use of women and children in their activities and the threat of using weapons of mass destruction including biological, chemical, nuclear or radiological.

Terrorism by no means is a phenomenon unique to Spain and compaired to other countries is less of a problem. However with its existence still evident a solution has to be achieved, and by looking at other countries that have contained their own problem possible lessons could be learnt. Please click on the following link to see a map of where terrorist incidents have occured in 2008: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terrorist_Incidents_2008.svg.

Is terrorism a useful tool in achieveing one's goals? It could be argued that because after the 2004 Madrid train bombings and Spain withdrew their troops from Iraq, Al Qaeda were successful in using terrorism as a tool to gain their objectives. If ETA persist with their campagin could they too be successful?