Letters to the Editor
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@Glad the Inhaler
According to published U.S Weather Service figures, lightning kills about 60 American civilians each year. According to published U.S. State Department figures, apart from Sept 11, 2001, the most American civilians killed by terrorist activity in recent years was 56 in 2005, all of them in Baghdad.
Not quite so. There were the 168 American civilians killed by a terrorist bombing in Oklahoma City in April 1995. But hey, that atrocity (until 9/11 by far the worst the country had ever suffered) was inflicted by a white supremacist right-wing militia ex-military dude, so I guess one can understand the collective American amnesia over that incident. It doesn't count as terrorism the same way that attacks by Islamic extremists do...at least according to the typical American's weltanschauung.
But, limiting your case to foreign terrorism directed at American targets, your point is a valid one.