I would vote for this post ten times if I could. You sum it up really well in your first few sentences:

It is completely impossible to precisely define the word “terrorism” in a way that doesn’t include what every “government” on the planet does … unless you include in the definition something that basically amounts to, “but it doesn’t count as terrorism when government does it.

This is so true and then the later definition:

For example, 28 CFR § 0.85 defines "terrorism" to mean “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”

Just emphasises it further. What is the lawful use of violence? It is whatever the government decides it wants to call lawful.

Sadly the biggest creator of terrorism in the world is the continued imperial style meddling of our own western governments in the affairs of other nations.

Add to that the regular murdering of large numbers of people extra judicially using drones and the like and it isn't surprising that people come back looking for revenge.

If we are supposed to be the good guys that stand for the rule of law then we have a strange way of showing it by murdering people without even a trial. Even if you accepted that what of all the other innocent people that also get killed as a result.

Thousands of civilians seem to be killed every year in this way - if it was a member of my family that ended up as collateral damage I'm not sure I would placated by being told that it was an accident and they weren't the intended target. It's the same as terrorists calling their victims "martyrs" - it may placate their conscience but it doesn't help the person who is dead.

Violence always leads to more violence. The way to fight and prevent terrorism is to do the hard things i.e. instead of raping and pillaging poor countries to enrich our own we need to engage in nation building and helping other nations.

Reducing injustices in the world would probably have an infinitely larger effect.

The problem is that is hard and expensive. Also the people in power actually don't necessarily want to eliminate things like terrorism because they have a perverse incentive to keep them going.

Firstly because it allows them to consolidate their power and make new laws due to the continuing fear of terrorism and secondly because it is good business for the military industrial complex.