Cross-Posted at MyLeftWing.com.
As the G-8 summit approached a week or so ago, I got involved with and interested in the ONE Campaign. I was digging around on their website a bit and came across an article (which I cannot now find) that framed the need for the G-8 to commit to honoring its Millennium Development Goals on the basis that the failure to eradicate extreme poverty, disease and privation builds fertile ground for terrorist and other illicit activities.
It made and still makes sense to me - the worst-off of third-world countries are veritable petri dishes upon which to grow hatred and resentment - ripe pickings for those who preach terrorism. Additionally, money, food and medication-starved nations are more susceptible to the illicit drug trade. It's a matter of basic survival for them and that trumps morals and ethics.
Then the London bombongs happened.
Colbert I. King, in his
editorial in today's
Washington Post points out that Bush and Blair have been making the poverty and lack-of-freedom argument for some time now and grants as well that it
may be largely accurate. Yet it's only a piece of the picture in light of the revelation that the London bombers were all British citizens.
From the editorial:
The presence of suicide bombers in London on July 7 had nothing to do with porous borders, an influx of counterfeit asylum seekers or weaknesses in British deportation laws. The men on those three subway trains and double-decker bus had one thing in common besides their faith and their British citizenship: a rage within that caused them to turn themselves into human bombs.
That put them in league with suicide terrorists from Iraq to Israel. So what is the West, including the United States, really up against?
What indeed? To me, the Administration has utterly failed to make the distinction between "terrorist" and "Muslim". Their propensity to succeed politically by fomenting fear and distrust further aggravate this lack of dissemination and thus the risk of domestic alienation grows.
Making us less safe.
Another important excerpt:
The ranks of terrorist groups, however, also include young men and women from the middle class. The feelings they seem to share across the board, she said, had to do with humiliation, a desire for a clear identity, and a belief that they can control more through their deaths than through their lives. They have come to see murder-suicide and martyrdom as just rewards for avenging the harm done to their religion and to Muslims in other countries.
A misuse of Islam by terrorist leaders, to be sure. Murderers in the name of an extremist ideology? Yes. But -- and here's the lesson London learned that America cannot ignore -- alienation, blind hatred and fanaticism are not foreign imports. They can be homegrown. And just like firecrackers, they can explode.
Explode indeed. This Administration, which has knowingly created division between diverse groups of Americans is implementing policies that could bring events like the London bombings to rest in our front yards. A recent Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll showed that 75% of Americans felt a terrorist attack was either very likely or somewhat likely. Only 17% thought that an attack was either not very likely or not likely at all. The remaining 8% were unsure. But when thinking of terrorism, before the London revelations, I know I thought of foreign nationals as the purveyors. It would appear that our risk is even greater.