>First you got to wipe out Ignorance, Poverty, Illiteracy and give people the right to Self-Determination. Once you do that, the terror goes away. People with options don't involve themselves in these kinds of things.

Yes, that's the prevalent thinking on the matter.
But how does this "explain" the 911 attackers, many of whom were university educated (and outside of their own countries, suggesting no poverty either). Generally literacy and education eliminate ignorance.

Also, I'm not at all sure that self-determination is a requisite for non-terrorist tendencies to flourish. We've had (the 'free' west) our share of terrorists over the years and my guess is that they will continue to operate. Admittedly, the new laws will help to fight them too, but they will continue somehow, as they always have, even when the FBI had much more power than it does today.

Terrorism seems to arise when someone espouses a social theory and has the power of persuasion so strong that he can cancel listeners' rational thought processes on specific issues.
It gets really dangerous when that same person has lots of money or has ways of raising lots of money for the cause.
The 911 folks were able to hold their beliefs and stick to their mission despite being a part of the American cultural scene for months, if not years! This suggests a fanaticism impervious to virtually any factor.

Jim

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>Charlie