system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:The rationale and the end game for terrorists

Omitting the Boston bombings because it's probably too soon to really grasp a full understanding of the situation. I'm not sympathizing with terrorists by any stretch of the imagination, but I don't understand what blowing up or killing a bunch of innocents accomplishes. It happens in the US few and far in between but it seems to happen pretty frequently in other parts of the world. What do these terrorist groups hope to gain? What's their end game? Why specifically do they seem to target innocents?
gpt
Pretty sure you're just wanting a basic simplification, but to start here is the ELI5 Version:

A terrorist wants to scare people.  He's mad enough or crazy enough that he just doesn't care if anyone gets hurt, and he tries to find some way to hurt people so everyone else gets scared.

As for why they want to do it, well that's hard to answer and it's different for different people.  It can be that someone else who was mad tricked them into it (brainwashed), or it could be that they're just really angry about something they think is not fair.

The important thing is this, don't let them have what they want.  They want you to be afraid... afraid to go to school, or afraid to go do things with friends.  Don't let them get away with that, and don't make them famous by talking about them.  

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The laymen friendly simple version is this;

Look at 9/11... look at what happened in the US after that.  We're at each others throats over everything, the TSA checks your ass before you can travel, and we've spent ourselves into debt blowing up mud huts in a war that has made the region hate us even more than before we started.

That is the terrorists end game.  Make them scared, and make others hate them.  Break down their position.

Think of it from a swapped position... it's easier if you think about it being aliens instead of humans (because these fucks don't tend to value lives).  Alien occupation of earth, and you're fighting a losing battle.  Many humans have become complacent slaves and you're trying to shake it up and bring them down.  Now, with that view in mind, imagine different acts of terrorism that have been done.