Terrorism is designed to support a particular political agenda, otherwise it is simple random crime.  John Wayne Gacy killing young men was a criminal, John Wayne Gacy killing Jews or Muslims or abortion providers in order to express his opposition to Judaism, Islam, or abortion would have been a terrorist.  The KKK was one of our earliest terrorist groups as were Hitler's Brown Shirts.  So Quantrill, Anderson, and the rest were terrorists.  The James boys were terrorists who morphed into simple criminals.  What distinguishes terrorists from criminals is not the victim or the act, but the purpose.

Of course the meaning has evolved since 9/11.  A terrorist is now anybody who opposes the policies of our government.  It's also a cheap way to drum up support by keeping the public terrorized.  I think those poor schmucks in Miami are a perfect example.  I have a sneaking suspiciion that they were strung along for months by the FBI's PAID informant because they were a paycheck until they finally pressured him to show some sort of concrete results so he got them to quit talking and actually do SOMETHING and then he sold them like cheap meat.  You may not be old enough to remember (I am) but terrorists and WMD and terrorist plots are now being used the same way that godless Communists and Commie subversives were used back in the 1950's – to keep the public scared and in line with government policies.  But I will say that the ads to build your own atom bomb shelter were much more effective than some government schmuck advising us to buy duct tape and plastic.

Actually I never worried about it too much.  We lived within 10 miles of a couple of major defense contractors, a major airport, and a major crossing point of the Mississippi River, so I always figures that either the near misses or the radiation would get us in the first couple of hours.  That was called the “bend over and kiss your ass goodbye” strategy.

The bottom line is that the world, including America, is, always has been, and unfortunately probably always will be a very dangerous place.  It used to be disease and wandering bands of murderers called Huns, Visigoths, Tartars, whatever.  Now its SARS, birdflu, or whatever the pandemic-du-jour is, WMD delivered by some band of savages called godless Commies, terrorists, street gangs, whatever.  I guess next it will be invaders from outer space.  I just don't like politicians and self-appointed “leaders” using that threat to attack others, discriminate against whomsoever they personally don't like, and chip away at our rights.

There is an exhibit entitled “The Enemy Within” that is coming to a museum not far from where I live.  I caught the exhibit a few years ago at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. and enjoyed it very much.  It details terrorism in our borders that we, as Americans, seem to have forgotten, from the anarchists of the early century (I believe they actually placed a bomb in J.P. Morgan's mailbox, or something similar to that) to the Weather Underground to paramilitary groups of more recent years.  September 11 was hardly the beginning of the problems we've seen as a nation.

If what you say is true, it would make 9/11 a non-terrorist event, since it was an economic objective – whether symbolic or actual – that they hit.  It would also make something like the Eric Rudolph bombing at the Olympics a non-terrorist event since some nails or shrapnel with an explosive in a backpack, by a lone person, isn't really “well thought out” (relatively speaking).  It might also make acts by U.S. special ops to destroy bridges or piping or whatever “terrorist” acts since they're well-trained soldiers, it's deliberate and well-thought out, and they do it towards enemy governments.