Are the Democrats using psychology in calling the 9-11 planners criminals rather than military combatants?

who were actually trying to bring down the US by attacking our national military complex, our national financial center, and headed for the seat of our government. Are they degrading what the jihads call war to criminal acts to take away from their self-imposed status to degrade their cause? Religious people would not want to be called criminals while they see themselves as revolutionaries or martyrs. I feel they are military combatants but calling them criminals does degrade their cause to the world very nicely.