Terrorism is a device that is used by a group of individuals with a common cause who have realized that their enemy is too powerful to confront politically or militarily.

They have two objectives: the ultimate objective is to build up a strong opposition the power that they oppose to overthrow it, but the first objective is to keep their cause alive for however long it takes to build up the opposition.

The thing that makes terrorism such an effective tool is that both the terrorist act and the reprisals to it help advance their cause. A bombing or asassination sends a message out that the cause is alive and well, and the retaliation to it, which might include arrests and counterattacks, and more assasinations, invariable creates new victims of "the power", and strengthens the opposition to it.

For the terrorist, everyone is expendible, and the more extreme a reaction they provoke, the better for their cause.

The fact that terrorists recruit from the disenfranchised, and operate among the disefranchised doesn't mean that they represent them, or even care about them. Their primary attraction is that they are easy marks--it doesn't take much to turn them violently against a power that they probably resent anyway, but it is important to realize that they seldom know the true motives of the people that they are following--