[Faceman]

So you're telling me that this mother would still bring up her child to be a suicide bomber even if there was the opportunity for him to go to college and become a well respected member of his society?
I don't think so. All people - may it be in the US in Europe or in Afghanistan - are looking for a purpose in their life.
The main problem is that there is so little choice for people in the poor countries and that martyrdom seems the easy way out.
I am strongly convinced that if there was a solution to the poor living conditions in these countries terrorism would be minimized. I'm not saying it would be extinct. People still bear hatred and with some it would overcome their joy of a better life. But it would be on the decrease and people would stop to bring up their children with the hatred they now have no more use for thus decreasing the problem further.
I am very well aware that the solution is NOT to donate everybody a truckload of Coke and a Chevy Blazer. This is why I said I would *simplify* in my first post. It's about having a life you (or the hopefully-not-to-be-terrorist) consider worth living and therefore hesitating to kill yourself and others.
Happy people seldomly kill.
Of course there is a minority who does NOT want to come to an agreement in every conflict. The issue at hand is that it is not overruled by the majority but rather followed by them because they are the only ones who promise a solution.
What I'm trying to say is: A Volvo won't convince Bin Laden but what is he going to do alone when all his countrymen are driving off to the mall in their Volvos instead of bombing a market in TelAviv (again I am aware that the thought of shopping malls and Volvos in the Westbank is unrealistic and ridicolous - bear with me, it's just a metaphor)

[ 06-25-2003, 05:21 PM: Message edited by: Faceman ]