According to a news report, Cho Seung-Hui is the prime suspect in the Virginia Tech shootings that resulted in the death of 33 people, including the gunman, who had purchased his Glock 9 mm pistol in March. He apparently left a note "found in his dorm room that railed against 'rich kids,' 'debauchery' and 'deceitful charlatans' on campus". It seems he must have planned ahead for his violent actions. Authorities are having difficulty learning much about his recent thoughts, feelings and behaviors because he kept to himself, wasn't sociable and "had shown recent signs of violent, aberrant behavior, according to an investigative source, including setting a fire in a dorm room and allegedly stalking some women."

Cho seems to have been "a loner" who surely needed to be seen, heard, recognized for who he was, but he seems to have also very effectively closed the doors of opportunity for those things to have happened, for his needs to become known and taken care of. Though his needs of food, clothing, shelter, money and education were being met, he seems to have had social and emotional needs that were not being met and not being heard and recognized - likely at least in part due to his own emotional and social problems.

So why am I posting this here below an article about addressing the root causes of terror? In this context, the question is: was this an act of terrorism?

If it is, why is it? If not, then why not? Can terrorism be the result of an individual's troubled relationship with the world, or is it terrorism if it involves an ongoing pattern perpetrated by the troubled relationship a whole group of individuals has with the world? Certainly, the students, staff and faculty at Virginia Tech were terrified by Cho.

Whether or not we use the term "terrorism" for this particular event, there are certainly elements of its root cause that are similar or identical to elements of the root causes of events involving suicide bombers or planes crashing into buildings. So the real questions become: What are the common root causes of such events? What is it we are and are not doing in our lives, in our country, in the world that supports these causes? What is it we need to be doing, individually and collectively, to avoid supporting these causes?

The root causes of terrorism are deeper beneath any examples cited. Terrorism arises when people are not seen and heard, when they're not paid attention to. It grows out of frustration caused by feelings of powerlessness. It is fed by the lack of the necessities of life, whether on the level of food, shelter and security or on the level of personal freedom and the possibility to improve one's life. It is caused by the impression that others are making one's life miserable, that they don't know or admit it, that they don't care.

Whether the oppressive ones employ forces that are economic, social, agricultural, military, political or whatever is not important. If the oppressed feel they are not being noticed, not being heard, not being heeded, not being cared about, not able to change the situation using social, political, economical or military methods that are conventional and acceptable, they are likely to turn to methods that the conventional have labeled terroristic. When the situation has deteriorated to such a low state, justification is easy to concoct for any of the various methods employed, whether the context for such justification is religious or otherwise.

Look behind the surface of any particular current or past example where terrorism has surfaced and you'll find causes for all that happens. Look deeper yet to find more essential causes, and deeper yet to find the root causes.

The solutions are all the same at the root cause level. People need to have the essentials of life, not just for support of their bodies, but also for their minds and hearts and souls. People can only obtain to all these things, or even have hope to such attainment, living in a local, national, world community based not on fear but on love, not on division but on unity, not on uniformity but on diversity, not on selfishness but on mutual support, not on greed but on sharing.

All those in favor of such a world, please raise your hands. All of you in favor of doing all in your power to help bring about such a state of affairs, please get busy. Anyone not in favor, what ARE you in favor of?

If you have a better vision, please share it. If you simply don't believe it's reasonable or desirable or possible so you're not interested in helping, then you're right. You're right because a beautiful world is only possible if we all do our best at helping it come into being. It's not going to happen overnight. It's not going to happen in our lifetimes. We've worked a long time to get into all the trouble we're in. It's going to take a long time to get ourselves out of trouble and into beauty. And it's going to take even longer if you don't help.

"You don't see people from South America crashing planes into buildings in the U.S. "

You do see crashing planes into the ground after blowing up in the sky, done by the CIA backed Luis Posada Carriles on a Cuba na Airline plane, killing all aboard.

"You don't see people from South America crashing planes into buildings in the U.S. "

No. you don't see people from the middle east doing this either. wake up. look at the facts. don't be just another stupid Am,erican sheep being led to the capiallistic slaughter house.

Obviously there are terrorist groups in Central and South America, some of which oppose heavy handed techniques supported by the US government. Opposition to US involvement in South and Central America has seen success in established and peaceful political channels such as the Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who has successfully stood up to the Bush government.
I argue there are no international terrorist groups from South America like Al-Qeada.

The root cause of terrorism is corruption and injustice by powerful ruling-class and corporate profiteers. When a corporation follows either a military force or a missionary force into a land and begins occupying it and stealing its resources, and the native population is cast into the side-lines, marginalized, and neglected, rendered powerless within its own land by forces too powerful for it to oppose, their only hope is to use terrorist actions to do as much damage to that powerful occupying force as possible. It's an act of desperation against a giant.

The problem with people who are desperate enough to resort to terrorism is they have no voice in the MSM, which is a corporate-controlled propaganda machine which does not tell their side of the story. As long as such people are denied the publicity they need to tell their side of the story, the public tends to misunderstand them and fear them.

As for Central and South America, some of the posters here need to do more research. Columbia has the FARK, which has been recently labeled a terrorist organization by the US and the Columbian government. Central America, including Mexico and Guatamala, Nicaragua, have the Zapatista,
which is composed mostly of indigenous farmers and poor people who have been mass-murdered and oppressed by the US-corporate friendly governments, who have been stealing their land and resources to build military bases, factories, and sun-cities for generations. There are others in South America, such as in Chile, where the US has been exerting powerful capitalist-influence over the economy for decades.

Next time someone makes a general statement like "no terrorist groups in Central and South America", they might want to check their facts.

Opposition to the US in Mexico and Columbia is extremely strong.

Btw, there's no real factual proof that Muslim terrorists were behind 9/11; there is much factual proof that the US govt has been hiding and suppressing evidence to the contrary and there is a huge movement of intelligent Americans that suggest it was the biggest false-flag operation in US history.

I have given you a strategy for ending terrorism. It's not complicated. All that it requires is your honest commitment and intention to pursue the path of truth, honor, dignity, compassion, courage, and love.

Mark A. Goldman
http://www.gpln.com

Perhaps it's the aggressors who need the counselling even more. Or is it the cons selling?

And on the question of why no Central American international terrorists, the answer is simple. We have usually worked our terrorism there thru proxy governments. So the liberation struggle has been directed at the LOCAL oppressors, who are a more immediate threat and more reachable.

As the major pervayor of terrorism in the world today is the US government, and those destructive policies, both domestic and foreign, are motivated by the desire of our ruling class to continue to rule and to use up a disproportionate amount of the world's resources, addressing greed, self-centeredness corruption and fraud here would do a lot to address the root causes of terrorism.

This article demonstrates my belief that there are practical, non-violent solutions to every problem, terrorism included. And all the stated causes of terrorism make total sense.

Even though I heartily support the successful counseling efforts in Singapore, and would love to see the same efforts adopted in hotspots around the world, I believe another, simultaneous effort needs to happen:
counseling for Americans suffering from massive fear, panic, xenophobia, aversion to questioning authority figures, guilt, consumerism and its addictions, and the toxic, extreme belief systems (so similar to jihadism) caused by absorbing a lifetime of religious and political propaganda from parents, teachers, and mass media.

In fact, in my opinion, if the American counseling was successfully applied, the Islamic counseling would be unnecessary.

Excellent topic. The root cause of terror is the rampage of the beast capital. The problem is addressed naturally by a people oriented public policy by forcing the beast to submit to the public will. The policy is best carried out at the grass roots level, through mass boycotts/strikes, etc.

So if terrorism is caused by foreign military occupation such as in Afganistan and Iraq, then why hasn't there been an international terrorist movement from South and Central America? For the past hundred years at least, the U.S. has exerted political, military, and economic influence on South and Central America, note the Panama canal. Yet, there has been no international violent terrorist movement from the Americas. You don't see people from South America crashing planes into buildings in the U.S. Terrorism from the middle east has resulted in attacks against Americans on American soil, British on British soil, and the Spanish on Spanish soil. Could the basic reason be that the ideology of those terrorist is violent and hateful?

According to Dr. Robert Pape of the University of Chicago, the root of terrorism is not so much related to religious beliefs (though they may exacerbate the problem if their opponents are of a different religion) as foreign military forces occupying their homelands or interfering in the politics of same.
Any country suffering foreign interference or occupation would cause those who object and who lack power to use whatever means they can to disrupt and oppose such incursion. The U.S. often uses military forces to increase or protect the taking of foreign resources for corporate profits to the detriment of the people of those countries. We should look at our government's own activities which lead to a terrorism backlash.

A solution to the Iraq problem!?

But war is good for the American economy. The war armaments business is the only business that is not outsourcing jobs. Joining the military is a good economic job option for many poor young adults. Not to mention the massive amounts of the U.S. budget that goes to military spending.

The last thing the U.S. wants is hearts and minds. This isn't a popularity contest.

Counselling! What a brilliant resolution and how wonderful that it came from the ustads. Engaging the militants on their own theological turf is a technique definitely worth exporting!
There has been no international violent terrorist movement from South and Central America because the indigenous people are, well, indigenous to the area and not international, and others are Catholics. There has, however, been opposition to U.S. trained and supported dictators and their armies. It's a different culture, so different means are used. And anyway, the U.S. exerts influence in these places but only occasionally--e.g., Haiti--do they actually occupy. It's the occupation of countries that brings out the violent opposers.