Terrorism works better as a tactic for dictatorships, or for would-be dictators, than for revolutionaries .
Interpretation
Terrorism is often more effective for authoritarian regimes than for those seeking genuine liberation.
Christopher Hitchens emphasizes that while terrorism is a tactic employed by various groups, it tends to favor oppressive governments or those aspiring to power rather than genuine revolutionary movements. This suggests that oppressive regimes can manipulate terror to maintain control, while true revolutionaries often struggle to gain support and legitimacy through violent means.
In practice
Discussing the impact of terrorism in a political science class.
In a public dialogue with Salman in London he [Edward Said] had once described the Palestinian plight as one where his people, expelled and dispossessed by Jewish victors, were in the unique historical position of being 'the victims of the victims': there was something quasi-Christian, I thought, in the apparent humility of that statement.
What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
Never ask while you are doing it if what you are doing is fun. Don't introduce even your most reliably witty acquaintance as someone who will set the table on a roar.
[E]xceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.
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By union the smallest states thrive. By discord the greatest are destroyed.
Senator [Stephen] Douglas is of world-wide renown. All the anxious politicians of his party, or who have been of his party for years past, have been looking upon him as certainly, at no distant day, to be the President of the United States. They have seen in his round, jolly, fruitful face, post offices, land offices, marshalships, and cabinet appointments, chargeships and foreign missions, bursting and sprouting out in wonderful exuberance ready to be laid hold of by their greedy hands.
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Freedom and the power to choose should not be the privilege of wealth. They are the birthright of every American.
The chief foundations of all states, new as well as old or composite, are good laws and good arms.
That politician who curries favor with the citizens and indulges them and fawns upon them and has a presentiment of their wishes, and is skillful in gratifying them, he is esteemed a great statesman.
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