“Why do you describe likely targets and give terrorists ideas?”

“You wrote about the inevitability of global terrorists attacking U.S. international corporations, friendly Muslim countries and other targets, and within a few days we had the bombing of a Marriott hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, and an attack on the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad. Are you prescient or just lucky?”

“I agree that U.S. enemies abound, but why do they hate us?”

Those comments joined the barrage of responses to a recent column on the realities of modern terrorism. In light of last week’s spate of terrorist attacks around the world, I already had planned to revisit the issue. The questions provide a handy framework.

My goal in generally outlining the types of targets that al-Qaida and its cohorts might select was to help readers understand how terrorists think, discourage complacency and minimize surprise. For self-evident reasons, I avoided mentioning specific targets.

However, such information is hardly secret. For instance, despite most people’s astonishment at the 9-11 perpetrators’ tactics, specialists had long warned about aviation’s myriad opportunities for terrorists — including the potential use of aircraft as weapons.

Those who wish to delve into the terrorist mind should consult “Inside Al-Qaeda: Global Network of Terror,” by Rohan Gunaratna of the University of St. Andrews’ Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence. Patterns of Global Terrorism, an annual U.S. Department of State publication, also evaluates terrorist behavior, historical and contemporary. As one example, that book’s statistical-review section shows total facilities struck by international attacks in the past half-decade. Most are businesses, one of many so-called soft targets that terrorists typically can reach more easily than, say, military installations.

Using background gleaned from such sources over time, it’s possible to anticipate, not predict, the kinds of moves that terrorists might make in the future. Only the terrorists themselves know the dirty details of their plots — until they happen.

The Jakarta incident provides almost a textbook case. It involved the Marriott, a prominent, 33-story symbol of American global corporate influence and a soft target. The suspected perpetrator, Jemaah Islamiyah, is believed to have close links to al-Qaida. According to the U.S. government, Jemaah Islamiyah devised plans in 1997 to target U.S. interests in Singapore and now operates in many parts of Southeast Asia.

In Iraq, reported al-Qaida sightings began long before the war and continue. Whether that group was involved in the Jordanian Embassy bombing or not, the chaotic aftermath of the war provides an ideal environment for extremists.

What compels those miscreants to direct such fury against the United States and its allies?

Sweeping changes in the world order play a part. The current wave of terrorism, which started a few decades ago, received an assist from three developments: the end of the Cold War, which released nations and other actors from the artificial restraints of the superpower confrontation; rapidly accelerating globalization, which eased terrorists’ access to technology and the entire world; and global apathy, which put off confronting terrorism in a comprehensive, sustained manner.

Beyond those factors, the roots of modern terrorism reach in several directions.

Anti-Americanism is key, spurred by adverse perceptions of the United States’ ascendant global position, wealth, power, use of military force, backing of governments viewed as illegitimate, value system, arrogance-tending behavior and aggressive exporting of its way of life.

The tendency of cultures to clash, still troubles society, partly through terrorism. Religion — in particular, extreme interpretations associated with revolutionary ideologies such as al-Qaida’s — inspires an increasing number of terrorists. Poverty, historical inequities and territorial disputes also can contribute to terrorism.

Some of those factors defy resolution. But a stronger effort by Americans to understand and respect diverse cultures, reach out to the majority non-extremists, work with other nations, resolve crises before they explode and expand prosperity would dull the edge of terrorism — and anti-Americanism.