Yes the immediate goal is to kill . The end goal is to use that terror to force people into trying to change things . With the 911 attacks their immediate goal was to kill but they stated that their overall goal was to use the killing to scare people into demanding the government to get out of the middle east . That is why it was terrorism and would not be terrorism if the end goal was just to kill ad many people as possible . Why is it a false equivalence ? If someone hates cops and kills one cop because they hate cops it ' s murder . If someone hates cops and kills a cop as a way to terrorize other cops into doing what they want it ' s terrorism . The key is that your whole main overall goal isn ' t to kill one person to stop that one person it ' s to use terror usually from killing one or more people to try to force political or religious change .