Monday, March 31, 2008
Giving People Another Option...
While reading for last Friday's class from The Age of Sacred Terror, Benjamin and Simon stated something that I thought was quite interesting. On page 409, they say, "Traditional societies the world over are reeling from the impact of globalization, which arrives wearing the face of American popular culture. Poverty is endemic in Africa, Asia, and Latin America as well as in the Middle East and North Africa. Only al-Qaeda has counterattacked with a campaign of violence that aims for total victory through annihilation of the presumed source of these evils." It seems to me that Benjamin and Simon suggest that the world is not doing enough, or really anything, to fight the poverty that is so prevalent in the mentioned places. It only seems natural that people would support al-Qaeda because they are the only organization doing anything at all. Only al-Qaeda is giving them an answer for their miserable state, so of course they are going to join and support them. So, it seems to me that if the world, not just the US, increased their attention and aid to these places and gave the people a viable alternative option to al-Qaeda and other terrorists, perhaps support would dwindle for the terrorist organizations. But again, it is difficult to determine whether or not people in these poverty-stricken areas would even accept Western help. Anyway, just a thought... feel free to share your ideas.
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5 comments:
I agree. Extending an olive branch to countries with potential terrorists is a good way to prevent terrorist-breeding. The problem is that terrorist organizations can spin our actions of assistance into a type of imperialist conspiracy. They claim that we are once again meddling in Middle East affairs to accomplish our own selfish goals. The U.S. and industrialized states are thus between a rock and a hard place. However, I am still optimistic that fighting poverty in those areas will have a positive impact.
I agree with you on this issue; to win the hearts and minds of the people across these regions is by honestly giving them economic aid without seeking finacial interest from thier economies.These regions dont have anti-American sentiments for no reason, but have experinced the bad effects of globalization.
I wonder if anybody has every taken the terrorists’ approach. The US could fund legitimate charities in other countries while avoiding recognition. If they could fund anti-poverty campaigns through a pseudonym the population would begin to prosper and not care where the money came from. While the US would get no formal recognition it would be funding the altruistic and long-term goal of ending poverty and possibly annihilating terrorism. If somebody wanted to accuse the US of sedition they could claim it was only for world benefit, not recognition or political dominance. This is probably too altruistic and wouldn’t happen but it would be interesting to implement a lesson from terrorists against themselves, learning from the enemy of sort.
I agree with samuelw. I don't think it will ever happen, but I do think it is a good idea. Not everybody that joins terrorist groups are in for ideological reasons. However, we've got to remember that we can't give the whole world aid. There are a lot of people that need it, and if we use our foreign aid resources only on the areas that are most prevalent to terrorists, then we're going to end up with other parts of the world angry.
I find this discussion especially interesting thanks to my class this semester dedicated to the studying of different international organizations. One particularly interesting topic of discussion in this class that pertains to international terrorism in this regard of poverty is the idea of humanitarian intervention. There are many pros and cons to humanitarian intervention. While initially it seems like a great thing, why not help other states when you have the means? But it is also important to be slightly selfish and remember the things that are important to us as a nation. Is the outgoing money, time, and effort worth the tradeoff of the possibility of reducing terrorism. It would be great if it did, but there is no guarantee that it would decrease terrorism.
But don't get me wrong, being and international development minor I am 100% in favor of lending sustaining aid to other countries. But there are many people in the United States and other strong states that do not have this perspective on humanitarian aid and intervention.
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