A Democratic World Is No Neocon Folly

[Preechr]

I'm hoping that, despite the self-interested motivation (which is the only real impetus behind any nation's foreign policy,) fighting an actual war on terror in a way in which it might be won could discourage the use of it to the degree America's military might has discouraged the idea of traditional war.

I read an article recently that disproved (to me anyway) my original theory that terrorism rises out of poverty and ignorance... ie: Palestinian terrorists come from the wealthier and more educated classes, and Saudi, the home of most of 9/11's terrorists and Bin Laden, is hardly a ghetto state. Terrorism is bred most efficiently in an oppressive environment. The amount of terrorists in a given area is inversely proportional to the personal freedom allowed by that area's government.

The only effective weapon in a WOT is therefore freedom, and you can hardly shoot that out of a gun. While military battles will be necessary to get the party started, just as in Vietnam, the only way to win the overall war is through political means. There's a lot of that going on in both Iraq and Afghanistan right now... it's too bad the media is so infatuated with the military efforts because official information regarding the formation of the governments over there is sparse.

Al Sadr's downfall was encouraging. His insurgency failed because his methods lost all popular support, partly due to our use of Iraqi soldiers but mostly because the local Iraqis decided they preferred an end to the violence. They believed more in Sistani than in the insurgency. Maybe the whole Iraqi population will eventually get behind the idea of self-government. Maybe there's already a trend in that direction. There's no way for us to see that, unfortunately, since all information is being filtered through the American election.

I'm hopeful.