[karlwig]

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If you want to end terrorism it's simple : stop occupying countries. Terrorism is directly caused by occupation.

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What country were we occupying on 9/11? And having some troops in a country does not equal occupation. Osama's primary grievance against the US was the presence of US troops in Saudi Arabia. Those troops were placed in Saudi Arabia at the request of the Saudi government during the first Gulf War. After the first Gulf War ended, the US had about 5,000 troops in military bases in Saudi Arabia. Those troops had almost no interaction with the Saudi population and played no roll in the Saudi government. The presence of those troops in no way amounted to an occupation, but Osama used that as a justification to kill thousands of innocent civilians.

The fact is that the Osama and other radical Islamists will attack us no matter what we do. Do you really think that someone who will kill thousands of innocent civilians because of some troops in the middle of the desert can be reasoned with? Of course not.

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If you put it another way: Is it just random that terrorists attacked the US? Of course not. There is a reason, even when it's wrong and just be fought against. "What have we done wrong to deserve this" should be a consern, still I don't hear any US politician asking this.

It's correct that the US wasn't occupying anyone directly at the time of 911. But it shouldn't be too hard to figure out why parts of the world would be mad at the US either, now would it? Again, I'm not defending terrorists by any means, but I still feel it's important to ask these questions now and then.