Terrorism generally exists because government policies exist that allow/encourage it. ("Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable"... yada yada) Hence to the extent that terrorism exists, this is evidence of a government policy decisions in an imperfect world, policy failure etc. For instance, yes, the US could solve the Israeli/Palestinian issue, but solving it does not fall within it's acceptable portfolio of policy options. So could Israel and Palestine for that matter.
Now, the functional nature of engineering is generally thus: Apply standardized solutions to a given problem and some optimized solution will be the outcome. Output = f(x,y,z...)... Alternatively if one studies a social science, it is all about the messy business of human beings and their decision making. A political science person professionally accepts the fallibility of outcomes of human decision making and hence policy due to incentive structures, dichotomies, or ideologies etc. As does a sociologist, lawyer, economist etc. But engineering as a science is much about the outcome being an optimal solution to a set of problems than a compromise policy on a set of problems.
Hence an engineer has more difficulty accepting the failings of humans and their decisions (governmental policy), where most other professionals are more accepting of policy failure. Just ask Scott Adams--he mocks the corporate decision making process remorselessly, because as an engineer, it is his profession's nature.