All I really want....

is a friend. (if I was a terrorist)

or so says Max Abrams in his paper "What Terrorists really want: Terrorist Motives and Counterterrorism Strategy".

My ten word summary of the paper.
Terrorists are terrorists because they want to have a friend.

Using his words on page 94 (it was published in a journal, the whole paper is like 28 ish pages)

There is comparatively strong theoretical and empirical evidence that people become terrorists not to achieve their organization's declared political agenda, but to develop strong affective ties with other terrorist members.

It seems to be some quality research. He identifies seven puzzles that can not be explained by conventional wisdom about terrorists. Also brings up some good numbers about what the captured terrorists say about why they joined. They seem to act almost like cults and exist to keep the group alive as he could not find one group that met its political aims.

Save the world, befriend a loner! (but only if he has relatives in a terrorist organization or visits their forums).