I don't think I will ever tire of paraphrasing the famous "it's the economy, stupid" line made famous by James Carville. But this is beside the point...
Lorne Gunter is quickly becoming my favorite columnist at the National Post (translation: he makes the same points as me, but since he is paid to do it, he does it better). Today Mr. Gunter writes about the "root causes" of terrorism and references the Havard, Kennedy School of Government study I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. This study, conducted by Alberto Adabie, points to lack of democracy as the true cause of terrorism not poverty. I liked this line:
...The root-causes argument permits Western liberals to exercise their guilt, without actually beating themselves up as the radicals would have them do. And it permits them to indulge their passion — spending billions of dollars of other peoples’ money on grandiose social schemes that demonstrate how much they care.
And the conclusion as well:
The root cause of terrorism is not poverty, U.S. foreign policy or even the existence of Israel. What would truly stop terrorism before it got started is fullfledged freedom. Democracy cannot be achieved by waving a wand, as the Americans are learning in Iraq. But no amount of root-causes hand-wringing and development spending will ever work. Yet it is unlikely liberals will ever learn that.
