They therefore invent historic interpretations whereby the current plight is all due to enemies, domestic and foreign.

This understanding has implications for combating terrorist groups at both the operational and strategic/political level.

According to a Dec. 4 report in The Wall Street Journal -- "Sole Captured Suspect Offers Grim Insights into Massacre" -- Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the one terrorist captured alive by the Indian authorities after he and his cohorts managed to kill scores of civilians while creating chaos in Mumbai last November, acquired "a sense of purpose for the first time in his life" while undergoing intensive training in various facilities managed by the Lashkar-e-Toiba organization in Pakistan.

Thus, we see again the somewhat familiar profile of the confused young man from a poor background with little or no education and no prospects who is energized, indeed, who finds a sense of purpose and personal direction by embracing an extremist ideology. He enrolls in a radical group. He undergoes serious training; he excels, and he ends up being selected as one of few specialized commandoes sent over to disseminate destruction aimed at bringing down Mumbai, the economic and cultural capital of India.

This narrative tends to reinforce the widely accepted conventional wisdom whereby fanaticism and its terrorist methods, for lack of other credible alternatives, become the only beacons of hope for those who suffer because of poverty and injustice.

The so-called sense of purpose Mohammed Ajmal Kasab acquired after his conversion to fundamentalism made him feel that, at last, he had found the one just cause to fight for. Prior to this awakening, his life could have no purpose because of the backwardness and injustice of a society that offered him no prospects.

If this is the almost inevitable path that purportedly forces dispirited young men to embrace fanaticism, here is the only remedy: Eliminate the causes -- poverty and injustice -- and you will eliminate the appeal of fundamentalism and its ability to recruit lost youth like Kasab.

While there is some truth in this narrative, we should be cautious in establishing clear cause-and-effect relationships between poverty and radicalism. It is true that it is easier for the fundamentalists to find pliable young men among the hordes of the disaffected, illiterate and hopeless. But poverty is a contributing factor, not the cause, of fanaticism. Poverty is not at the root of fundamentalist ideologies.

(Part 2: How motivation influences the conduct of terrorist operations at the tactical level)

(Paolo Liebl von Schirach is the editor of SchirachReport.com, a regular contributor to Swiss radio and an international economic-development expert.)

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)

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