Bob, you are a fine, very smart fellow but I find the reality of the extremist, terrorist Islamics, that is not all of Islam, to be the root action and reaction in the matter of the war on terrorism.

Sadly, you are right in that the most extreme terrorists are not and never will be reconcilable. Attempts at such reconciliaiton have repeatedly blown up in the face of the Government of Saudi Arabia...and no wonder...as the Saudi Government has allowed the Wahabbi Islamic extremist movement to grow and fund terrorism worldwide.

It began before 9/11, in my view, in 1993, with the first attack on the World Trade Towers, as far as a visible theme or focus point in time. But others can more wisely than me cite other examples I suspect.

Some Pakhtuns claim that Buddah as a human being was from the NWFP of Pakistan. Buddish is a great and large faith system, too, but today's radical Islamic movement has been physically destroying any and all vestages of it in Afghanistan and Northern Pakistan that they find or ever knew about.

I used to think like you, Bob, that poverty, lack of education, illiteracy, etc. were the root cause of terrorism. The I had to face the fact that highly educated radical Muslims, MDs, PhDs, engineers, etc. are among the rank and file as well as the leadership of Islamic terrorism today.
So much for my simple theory of suppressed masses which seems to be what you are driving at.