In regards to the golden rule, I have no sympathy for terrorists but look at it from the hypothetical: If China or some other country that had military power engineered a coup in say, Alabama, and installed a dictator as its new governor, then slapped sanctions on Alabama for decades causing it to go into poverty, then bombed it year after year killing innocent civilians in the process. Would that not cause Alabama natives to get angry at China and conduct terror attacks against them as an only means of trying to defend their state and stop China from meddling in their affairs? Americans need to get their head out of the sand and look at it from a different perspective. We pay more than enough in taxes to defend our nation's borders from terror attacks without having to nation build overseas.
