A lot of what the US did during Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc, could have been considered terrorism.
Terrorism as a label is a very convenient way to justify committing atrocities, under the name of squashing terrorism.
I remember hearing a radio talk show in which someone said they were against the Iraq war and the response from the pundit was "so you don't want to fight against terrorism?"
When people's actions get reduced to a single label it becomes increasingly easier to hate them.