Anti-americans everywhere

[Paolo Cavallo]

>From the current issue's Editorial of New Scientist.
http://www.newscientist.com/

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The US and its allies have to take tough action. But each move will have to be precise and
measured if they are to avoid the type of escalation the extremists must be hoping for.
And in the long run, the most effective way to eradicate suicide attackers is to eradicate
the causes of terrorism.

This is a sensitive issue. Nobody - repeat, nobody - could ever deserve what happened to
the people in New York and Washington, and nothing excuses the attackers. But that does
not mean we must submit to the fundamentalism which says that merely to suggest terrorism
is rooted in political and economic factors is anti-American or an offence to the victims.

Not a bit of it. The Middle East is full of terror groups and full, too, of poverty,
suffering and political repression. To say the two are unconnected is fanciful.
Downtrodden, uneducated Arab boys on the street are far more likely than their
comfortable, educated counterparts to see suicide bombers as warrior heroes and role
models.

Somehow - and it won't be easy - we must ensure that they acquire a stake in the world.
Only then will they stop seeing the West as an enemy intent on exploiting them. And to do
that, of course, we must be sure it isn't.
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Paolo Cavallo                 " I am a teacher at heart, and
                          there are moments in the classroom
                           when I can hardly hold the joy. "
                                        P. J. Palmer, 1998
paolo.cavallo at iperbole.bologna.it
http://www.alberghetti.it/paolo.cavallo/pc.htm
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