Absolutely not. Surprisingly enough, most people aren't all that excited about murdering dozens or hundreds of innocents. Some will do so with enough provocation, and you get the odd psychopath who really is hell-bent on killing, but for the most part the idea of a "terrorist" is to spread "terror", not outright kill people. Killing people spreads terror to be sure, but there are other ways to do so that don't involve destroying your own soul (or not so much of it, at least.)

With your 3-step program, the goal step is actually step 2 -- a drawn out period of time when your target is afraid of you without you having to do much to incite the fear. Only after you've dragged out step 2 as long as you can possibly manage are you forced to move on to step 3 and reset the cycle.

The entire world, primarily the US, are mired somewhere in the middle of step 2 still after 9/11. There's no reason for terrorist cells to risk attacking the US again until Homeland Security finally runs out of new ways to disrupt American life. The terrorists can just sit back and laugh as internally you all work yourselves into a paranoid frenzy, and externally you run around starting wars with random nations whose primarily link to terrorism is a shared religious background.

The IRA had a rapport with the media and the Gardaí. They had a codeword to confirm the bomb threat was legit. That doesn't mean that other bomb threats were ignored, but just that the IRA never gave fake threats, and almost always gave time to evacuate. The IRA was always very disciplined and often adhered to ceasefires and supported the political process. This is evidenced by the fact that they stopped when they felt that it was no longer necessary to continue their campaign.

A lot of people would have said that the IRA were just thugs getting revenge for the Black & Tans, or other injustices perpetrated by the British, but they were very well organised and lead and were achieving a specific goal. They were the stick to Sinn Féin's carrot. The 'political wing' of the IRA were always pushing for a peaceful solution to the NI crisis, but were often not heeded, or not taken seriously.

I think that while some of the things they have done are unforgivable, they were definitely understandable, and never random. I think things in Ireland would be so much worse now if the IRA weren't a level headed as they were and if the political process that operated in tandem wasn't as effective and wanted as it was.

The problem with the US's war on terror, is that:
a) The terrorists are not taken seriously.
When your 'defense' against terrorism is the TSA all but violating the general public, then you are not securing your people against terror attacks, and thus leave yourself open to the "Bomb in the crowd" attack.
b) The US has little or no interest in a political solution, they are treating it like a war and chant "USA USA USA" when they kill a figurehead of the terror movement, instead of trying to resolve the differences and problems that invariably they themselves created, when they traded arms to the very people not committing these attacks.

The UK saw the IRA as a very real and serious threat, and recognised Ireland bid for freedom as legitimate. The problem was and always will be the 6 counties that don't want to leave the UK. It has been seen that the UK is mature about it's sovereignty when it gave back Hong Kong as agreed, because that is what most people there wanted. I'm certain that if the 6 counties all wanted to leave the UK and merge with the republic, then it would happen. Personally, I think that ship has sailed.

So, there's a fine line between simple terrorism, and pursuing a guerrilla war on your home soil. You plant a bomb, and inform the media and police force and then detonate (or not, the threat is often enough). Because what you really want to say is "We could, at any time, detonate one of these without warning" So a serious terror/guerrilla group will not send hoax calls, as that serves them nothing.