Posted by Dan Ewert : 5/23/2002 11:21:00 PM (Archive Link)
Terrorism and anti-American feelings tend to flourish in countries where poverty is the norm. Or so say some. They contend that the extreme despair and hard lives they face breed resentment toward the decadent West that seems to have everything. Thus they lash out at the supposed brutal king taskmaster who keeps them down. The pundits then say that the obvious solution is to drag these people out of poverty. The U.S., the nation so hated for its wealth, must bestow some of that wealth on the less fortunate. Then these poor counties will be filled with gratitude and will come to love America for its graciousness and generosity. This is a horrible idea. While I will agree that, in some cases, terrorism and anti-Americanism is exacerbated by poverty, the mistake is thinking there is a corollary to this that says bringing them out of poverty will eliminate those feelings. The Left sometimes likes to treat world problems as if they were logic problems. Poverty causes terrorism so eliminating poverty will eliminate terrorism. If people were logic problems, then this just might work. However, as has been noted over the centuries, humans are not logical. The anti-American attitudes which are so prevalent in these societies will not just decrease in inverse proportion to their standard of living. We can give all the foreign aid we want to some countries, but the people will still hate us. Empirical evidence supports this. Surveys have shown that the far majority of Saudis have a vehement dislike for the U.S. Saudi Arabia is not a poor country. As the world’s largest oil exporter, they have a tremendous amount of money. And yet, they are anti-American so the poverty argument doesn’t work here at all. Egypt receives more foreign aid from us than any other country. Yet they are anti-American. The Kuwaitis are not only wealthy, but the United States saved their country from being absorbed into Iraq. Yet they are anti-American.

Wealth and aid don’t change the attitudes of these peoples because once a world view has been ingrained in a populace, is supported by the state and religion, it stays there. Aid from the people you hate will be accepted only with shame and will deepen your hate and resentment for their insulting condescension towards you. Liberals often chide the right for taking a too simplistic view of things. That’s why I find it so surprising that they think terrorist tendencies are only a matter of money. There are many factors involved and you can’t hope to address them all.

Trying to eliminate threats through money and bribery doesn’t work. It only serves as encouragement. In the late 18th century, America grew weary of paying the North African pirates tribute in return for safe passage of its trading vessels. Instead of persisting with the convenient method of monetarily supporting their attackers as so many other countries did out laziness, we attacked them and won. I like history.