You mean there was a time when it wasn't?? < /rhetorical >
The War on Terror was always a battle for extending liberty. These are the two sides on a seesaw combat that has gone back and forth since mankind first developed a sufficient amount of social interaction to form tribal societies. Some tribes are ruled by all the members being cowed into submission by a ruling clique, and other tribes have an all-encompassing rule by a direct democracy, in which all aspects of contention are discussed by the concerned parties.