Root Cause of the Mid-East Crisis is...

[ACPlayer]

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Your right that terrorism in and of itself is not the core problem. A more accurate statement would be that terrorism is the visible consequence of an irrational and dangerous belief system. Terrorism is the direct cause of many problems in the middle east, the belief system is the proximate cause. That is, it is because of certain beleifs that hezbollah and hamas etc exist and their existence and actions are the direct cause of continued violence.

Extra note: People have tried to convince me that it is poverty, oppression etc which causes terrorism and therefore those who are the oppressors, in the current situation they would say Israel, are to blame. If this is true then show me a Tibetan terrorist. Explain why Ghandi or MLK were not terrorists. There is a difference between an armed uprising brought on by oppression, real or perceived, such as the USA revolution which was delcared all nice and formal like, and the middle eastern terrorists who DELIBERATLY target civilians to make a point. Also remeber that Osama bin Laden is a rich man who has not been oppressed by anyone; his problems are purely religious.

Cliff notes version:

Religion=irrational beliefs. Irrational beliefs=irrational actions. Irrational actions (suicide bombing, terrorism)=pissed off victims. Pissed off victims=retaliation. Rinse and repeat last step indefinetly.

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Terrorism is not a consequence of a belief system. At least not if you are implying that it is a consequence of the religion in the region.

Terrorism has been used by Christians (Ireland, is a recent example), the Tamil Tigers (I think they are Hindu) in Sri Lanka, the ANC(used some terrorist tactics, like blowing up clubs), the Jews (the Irgun, etc), all of these were used to achieve a political goal. Most of the time the goal has been to free themselves of a political oppression.

Getting away from the emotive response to the impact of terrorism (the smashed discos, the mangled bodies etc) and concentrating on the emotionals state of the people (the population and not just the individual) committing the acts provides clues to the answer to the root causes.