OPINION — Virtually everyone in their mid-30s or older remembers where they were when they heard that an airplane struck the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001. I was in a hotel gym in Slovakia; it took two weeks to get home.
That was the goal of the terrorists: to destroy the ability of the American people to live their lives normally.
The concept of terrorism as a useful strategy emerged during the French Revolution. On Sept. 5, 1793, France’s National Convention declared that “Terror is the order of the day!” The government would henceforth use violence and intimidation to advance the revolution.
