&gt; Where people are not economically well off, these will happen, people are terrorists for a reason and it wasn&#x27;t because their life was great.<p>I agree that social and economic context is relevant, but its very not a simple &quot;when people are not economically well off, these will happen&quot;; not only are many terrorists well off (both in local and global terms), lots of regions which are poor aren&#x27;t breeding grounds for terrorism, either of the local or international varieties.<p>While I think its quite likely that <i>desperation</i> frequently plays a role in people deciding to become terrorist foot soldiers (the kind of people who become leaders without first being foot soldiers are probably driven by different forces), I don&#x27;t think mere poverty is enough (poverty may in some cases be a component, though.)