[jyl]

To Moses -

Well, how about here in the US? There is little or no homegrown Arab/Muslim terrorism going on here. Similarly in the UK, where the terrorism has been from the IRA, not the English Muslims. Similarly in Germany, despite a significant Muslim immigrant population.

In societies where Muslims are pretty much intermingled with the rest of the population, with more or less equal economic and political status, you don't tend to see radical Muslim terrorism (not homegrown, that is - of course a foreign terrorist can strike anywhere).

I'm not an expert on this, I'm reading and learning along with everyone else, so if I'm wrong I'd like to be told so. Right now, my feeling is that it is not a global religious war, it is festering hotspots where decades of conflict have bred terrorists, who are increasingly linking up with each other. Maybe if this goes on, it will spiral into a global religious war.

To Les Paul -

Not sure what you mean by tippy toe around the problem.

I think as long as the underlying wars and conflicts continue, they will continue to breed and motivate the terrorists.

I don't think you're going to be able to "win the war on terrorism" by military and police means. Look at the last couple of years: the invasion of Iraq has probably increased the risk of terrorism (vastly more hatred of the US in the Middle East, plus Iraq turned into a convenient training center pumping out new battle-hardened Arab terrorists), and despite a lot of money and effort domestically the US is still one great big soft target (how well defended is the average shopping mall, elementary school, or office building in your town, anyway?).