Maybe the answer is more obvious than I think, but I don’t know how to explain it.
It seems like since at least the 1990s (if not the late 1980s) the default antagonists in realistic, contemporary settings have not been governments or nation‐states, but foreign terrorists. You can find this trope in almost anything modernistic, from 24 to Bad Boys to Call of Duty sequels to the Diehard series to James Bond sequels to obscurities like Nuclear Strike to the Soldier of Fortune series to Syphon Filter to Lady‐only‐knows how many Tom Clancy books/films/games/shows/songs/baseball cards. Hardly anybody seems to find anything weird about this.
What is so fascinating about foreign terrorists?
It was part of an attempt to manufacture consent for the ‘war on terror’ that led to the deaths of millions of Middle Eastern people for crimes that they did not commit. That trend expanded into a more general US as world police narrative that remains popular to this day as it continues to be useful to the ruling classes for increasing profits for companies like Lockheed Martin which many of the ruling classes have shares in.