Fortunately what we have learned is that terrorists at the end of the day are pretty dumb. People capable of doing mass damage are not ones to soccumb to extremist ideology.
(and of course the big outlier in terrorism, 9/11)
Is that because the ones we don't think are dumb get called "freedom fighters"?
Whether they get called freedom fighters or terrorists depends more on their race and religion than their capabilities.
Maybe they were terrorists...