The Inescapable World
By Anthony Lewis
After Sept. 11 it was said by many that our world had irrevocably changed. That is true in a sense that we have not yet grasped.
Winning the military struggle against Osama bin Laden and his Taliban protectors, if and when we do, will not end the threat of terrorism against the United States. That will require, in the long run, something more difficult than military action: a profound effort by America and the West to ease the poverty and misery of the developing world.
Bin Laden and his colleagues are not motivated by poverty; they have an apocalyptic vision. But no one can doubt that the desperate conditions of life in Afghanistan provided nurturing ground for terrorism. Desperation is a fact of life in many poor, overcrowded countries.
President Bush said he was amazed at the hatred of America expressed by many people abroad over the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan. He is right that our target is terrorism, which hurts the poor as it does the rich. But it is not so surprising that the miserable of the earth should resent the richest and most powerful country.
Attacking the indecency of life in much of the Southern Hemisphere is no longer a matter of grace, of charity, of patronizing kindness. It is a matter of intense self-interest. For our own sake, we need to reduce the well of resentment.
[See http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/20/opinion/20LEWI.html]
Carl
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