1. What commentators seem to miss about terrorism is how much fun it is, especially for men. We all grow up loving war games, whether Capture the Flag or chess. For the psychopaths who commit atrocities without qualm or conscience, it's a video game come to life. For the "terrorism experts" who put on grave faces and talk knowingly about whatever their interviewers ask, it's also real good fun, with less personal risk. And it pays well too. Even the interviewers love it: travel to exotic places, a sense of importance, and ratings, ratings, ratings! And consumers love it too, because war games are even better than the National Football League.
2. If you think the government is always the problem, and that its current leadership falls somewhere on the spectrum between incompetent and malevolent, then times must indeed be terrifying. Add to that our instant, international, and graphic news cycle that can scare the heck out of anyone. Mix with the psychopaths who use create news for fun and pleasure. Finish it off with self-serving demagogues who profit from creating and building fear. It's a miracle that sales of beds for hiding under haven't skyrocketed.
3. When people fear enough (and in the internet age fear's communication is much faster, more powerful, and wider spread than ever in history), they will turn to the meanest, stupidest, toughest-talking bully around, and give him all the powers he wants. History shows that, with only exceedingly rare exceptions, the result is a long-lasting catastrophe for everyone involved (except the bully, his cronies, and his family unto several generations). US voters face such a choice: on the one hand, sanity with Hilary or Bernie; on the other, catastrophe with any of the Republican candidates.
