pynchon-l-digest V2 #2106

[FrodeauxB at aol.com]

Oh, yes, Rushdie was wrong. No one tried to excuse the attacks. All they did 
was try to justify them. All for the sake of the poor or oppressed. Well, 
folks, think about this:
from slate:
Since the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 mass murder declined to leave a note 
mentioning the "root cause" of their actions, a chorus quickly found one 
anyway: poverty. (The more obvious one-Islamic militants view destroying the 
United States as part of their historical duty-apparently has the drawback of 
being unsympathetic.) Here's a sample of the poor terrorist refrain. "But the 
end game is not eliminating terrorism. The end game is using our new global 
coalition to fight poverty and give hope to kids all around the world so the 
only option they have isn't joining some fanatical group," said Rep. Jane 
Harman, D-Calif. "We need a systematic approach that helps everyone in the 
world … not only by catching terrorists but by addressing the root causes of 
terrorism, like resolving conflicts in the Middle East, addressing poverty," 
said William Ury of Harvard Law School. "To prevent terrorism, we must make 
war against poverty," proclaimed playwright Harold Pinter. 

But the biographies of the hijackers and their commanders lead to another 
conclusion about the economic forces behind their actions. That is, terrorism 
is caused by money, education, and opportunity. For example, hijacker and 
apparent ringleader Mohamed Atta was the son of a Cairo lawyer. He went to 
the University of Cairo, then did graduate work in Germany. Another hijacker, 
Ziad Jarrah, was born in Lebanon to, according to the Boston Globe, "a 
prosperous, educated family." His father is a government official, his mother 
a teacher. He, too, went to college in Germany. Hijacker Marwan al-Shehhi, 
from the United Arab Emirates, was a college student at the University of 
Bonn. Brothers Wail and Waleed M. Alshehri, from Saudi Arabia, sons of a 
businessman, were both college educated. Then there are the terrorist 
leaders. Osama Bin Laden is from one of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest families. 
The man believed to be the No. 2 in the organization, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is 
an Egyptian-born physician, from, according to the New York Times "a 
prosperous and prestigious family." 

That being poor is not a prerequisite or even a reliable indicator of a 
propensity to murder people was expressed in the Wall Street Journal by Saudi 
exile Mohammed al-Masari, a former physics professor considered by the Saudi 
government to be a promoter of terrorism. "Most mujahedeen [freedom fighters] 
in Afghanistan were from Saudi Arabia, which shows that under the cover of 
being relatively wealthy, the Saudis are as devoted as any other Muslims. 
People in the West just want to cheat themselves by saying that the problem 
[of Islamic fundamentalism] is purely economic." 

Poverty stinks. It often means sickness, malnutrition, lousy education, and 
limited prospects. But if we were to magically eliminate poverty, that would 
not end militant Islamic terrorism. And to say that poverty explains terror 
is to slur those caught in terrible circumstances who choose to lead worthy 
lives. Does the United States fear Haitians? Few people are as circumscribed 
by poverty, disease, illiteracy, and corruption. But Haitians are desperately 
trying to get to America-not to slaughter us but to take the kinds of 
unpleasant jobs Americans don't want. The men of privilege and education who 
turned planes into bombs also murdered Leobardo Lopez Pascual. His response 
to poverty was to leave rural Mexico four years ago, and a wife and four 
children whom he hadn't seen since, to support his family by working in a 
kitchen on the top of the World Trade Center. 

To be sure, terrorists use poverty as a kind of currency. Their people's 
misery helps ignite rage. The terrorists want poor foot soldiers for their 
own ends. Until Sept. 11, the classic model of the suicide bomber was the 
young man of no means and no future recruited with a promise of glory in the 
afterlife for killing infidels. The greatest economic boon to the Palestinian 
people would be a lasting peace with Israel, but the terror organizations 
that want Israel's elimination prefer to sell the dark glamour of martyrdom. 
The chorus of poverty explainers who emerged after Sept. 11 often mention how 
the West's sanctions against Saddam Hussein have hurt the Iraqi people and 
resulted in more hate toward us. But it is Saddam's choice not to take the 
actions that would result in lifting the sanctions. How much more convenient 
for him to continue to build his arsenal while blaming his people's misery on 
the United States. 

Let's say, for a moment, the poverty explanation is right. What comes next? 
How does the United States eradicate poverty from corrupt regimes that 
despise us? Should we send in aid workers, like those now on trial for their 
lives in Afghanistan, their crime being to have Bibles? 

In any war, it is always smart to try to understand your enemy, his 
motivations, his weaknesses, his goals. But the root cause of the acts of 
Sept. 11, and the many other terrorist murders that preceded it, is the 
malignant philosophy of the perpetrators and their leaders, not their income.
 How long will these psuedo-intellectuals try to whine away the evil which 
exists in the world to sell us their own brand of intolerance. If anyone 
really cared about the poor and oppressed, they would sell all they have, 
give the proceeds to the poor, and give up all those things to which we 
cling-like these computers, our precious knick-knacks-leaving now and taking 
only that we think we need we think will last. Let's spare one another this 
posturing and get back to what may be the only thing for which we are 
worth-intellectualizing about TRP.
Peace be with you-but don't con me; or worse still-yourself.

TTFN

frodeauxb