As I grew older, I saw example after example of protestors in the United States, armed insurgents and revolutionaries, and anyone who stood in the way of the status quo being labelled terrorists. The word, it seemed, had no actual functional meaning, but certainly did have a political use. Want to delegitimize a movement or its tactics? Call them terrorists. Want to justify a drone strike in a sovereign nation? Say that your targets were terrorists. Want to destroy a hospital in Palestine or a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan? Call it terrorist infrastructure.