Poverty Causes Terrorism Part 527

Fascinating Newsweek report on 'the resistance', US miscalculations (always easier to see in hindsight, of course) and a suicide bomber who survived. Like the 9/11 terrorists, he comes from a comfortable, middle-class Saudi family.

The typical profile is much like Ahmed al-Shayea's, twentysomethings and even teenagers from comfortable middle-class families. "They have got no experience, they are not trained," a Palestinian jihadi told NEWSWEEK. "They just have to drive the vehicle. But these boys—17, 18 years old—are important." What motivates them? "I think their religion is better than others'," he says. "They are rich, they are educated, and they need nothing, but they see that in this fight they will win either victory or heaven. This is their ideology. Either way, they win." Unless, like al-Shayea, they live to tell the tale.