Abstract: This talk, something of a polemic, applies a critical structural realist (CSR) perspective to arrive at a critical judgment. A goal of CSR is to act as a solvent of the palimpsest of understandings of actualities to arrive at those that are approximately truer and critique those that are not. The realities critiqued are those bearing upon American exceptionalism. Critical analysis of US exceptionalism inquires into the US government's role in four different varieties of terrorism. These are state terrorism, proxy state terrorism, resistance terrorism, and response terrorism.