Getting at the roots of...( Perhaps the greatest mistake of the Bu...)

Perhaps the greatest mistake of the Bush administration has been its utter failure to take any steps to reduce the factors that inspire terrorists to attack us.

One factor, of course, is rich-world attempts to control oil flows, as exemplified most recently by Bush's apparent plans to take control of Iraq's vast petroleum reserves. Oil also explains the presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia, which enrages some Muslims, especially Osama bin Laden. But demographic and socioeconomic factors - especially poverty, inequality and large numbers of young men facing dim economic prospects - also are likely contributors to such terrorism.

The United States and its allies have responded to the heinous attacks of Sept. 11 with a short-term campaign focused on the necessary but insufficient task of bringing the perpetrators to justice. It did not respond by instituting a sane energy policy emphasizing conservation and renewable sources. That would doubtless have reduced the threat of terrorism, but it would also have menaced America's love affair with gas-guzzling SUVs.

Origins of terrorism

But oil geopolitics alone can't explain the atrocity of the 9/11 attacks. Sadly, an integrated framework that explains the origins of terrorism in general, and terrorism against the West based in Islamic fundamentalism in particular, is still lacking. For instance, why Arab nations have not maintained the enormous cultural and economic lead they once enjoyed over the Christian West is poorly understood. It seems unlikely that cultural disappointment over these long-term trends would make Muslims more prone to terrorism than any other militarily impotent group. The persistence of non-democratic governments in Muslim nations certainly might help generate resentment against the West to the degree that Western intervention in aid of corrupt, autocratic rulers is perceived as a factor.

In the November issue of Population and Environment, J
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Contact: Mark Shwartz
mshwartz@stanford.edu
650-723-9296
Stanford University
15-Nov-2002