Al-Zawahiri (Al-Queda #2) is a Medical Doctor.... ANY educational background can be a terrorist if the desire is there.
Not all engineers are good strategic planners. I have lived in both worlds and made a career out of combining both skills to military situations. The key here may be the word "systems". Systems engineers do think in a larger realm where one action can cause a specific reaction. Most engineers I have dealt with in the military community have a tendency to dote on minutia and ignore the bigger picture. When you can approach the military problem from a planner perspective and use the systems engineering to provide answers to the bigger picture, then you have a winner. The Cyber Command that may come to Barksdale will need such people. A strategic planner with systems engineering knowledge is invaluable in the Info Ops world as the problems of what assets to use to affect the adversary in the way you want is a very large and detailed problem.
WWDog
La Tech
Region and hyphen free since 1894!
Flagship of the University of Louisiana System