Poverty Causes Terrorism....

[JayB]

Actually, no.

Poverty and Terrorism

 

This should be common knowledge by now. Check the CV's of the folks who detonate themselves and/or trucks, planes, etc amongst the largest concentration of civilians that they can slaughter at one time and you find precious few shoe-shine boys from Brazilian slums, disenfranshised Masai tribesmen, or Yemeni goat-herds. You do find a disproportionately high number of physicians, engineers, and the like from the more prosperous bits of the Muslim world.

 

"It’s not poverty and lack of education, according to economic research by Princeton’s ALAN KRUEGER. Look elsewhere.

 

What Makes a TerroristIn the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, policymakers, scholars, and ordinary citizens asked a key question: What would make people willing to give up their lives to wreak mass destruction in a foreign land? In short, what makes a terrorist?

 

A popular explana­tion was that economic deprivation and a lack of education caused people to adopt extreme views and turn to terrorism. For example, in July 2005, after the bomb­ings of the London transit system, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said, “Ultimately what we now know, if we did not before, is that where there is extremism, fanaticism or acute and appalling forms of poverty in one continent, the conse­quences no longer stay fixed in that continent.” The Archbishop of Canterbury, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, King Abdullah of Jordan, Elie Wiesel, and terrorism experts like Jessica Stern of Harvard’s Kennedy School also argued that poverty or lack of education were significant causes of terrorism.

 

Even President George W. Bush, who was ini­tially reluctant to associate terrorism with poverty after September 11, eventually argued, “We fight against poverty because hope is an answer to terror.” Laura Bush added, “A lasting victory in the war against terror depends on educating the world’s children.”

 

Despite these pronouncements, however, the available evidence is nearly unanimous in rejecting either material deprivation or inadequate educa­tion as important causes of support for terrorism or participation in terrorist activities. Such explana­tions have been embraced almost entirely on faith, not scientific evidence."

 

Summary

[joblo7]

"Then the catastrophe came upon New York. On September 11, only three months after signing the lease between Silverstein and the Port Authorities, two large passenger jets crashed into the towers. Larry was lucky, that he was not responsible for liabilities towards the Port Authorities, since the disaster was an act of God. Quite the contrary happened. Larry Silverstein, despite not being the owner of the buildings, was the sole beneficiary of the insurance indemnity payments of more than 7 billion Dollars. Good for Larry that he had not forgotten to increase the insurance policies, just in time, when he signed the lease three months before the catastrophe happened: "Larry Silverstein, since July landlord of the towers, demands from the insurers 7,2 billion Dollars compensation, his speaker, Steve Solomon, said. ... The Port Authorities of New York and New Jersey, owners of the WTC, agree with Silverstein's demand." --Die Welt, Berlin, Oct 10, 2001.

 

seems like wealth does not guarantee against it either.

[prole]

Yes, this is quite old news.

[ClimbingPanther]

[conspiracy theory nonsense]

 

Somewhere, Buckaroo's voice can be heard... "Why didn't I see that before?"

[Crux]

[Peter_Puget]

Just give me that old style justice!

[chucK]

Alaska's got a problem with lack of women I hear. So what I propose is that instead of using their excess oil revenue to grant rebates to every citizen, they should use it to set up political asylum, transportation, and start-up funds for women who want out of these countries with their fucked-up women-as-property laws.

 

There would be unintended benefits and/or wonderful irony involved too. If the price of oil went up, then that would make it possible to rescue/steal that many more women from these Islamic states!

[Crux]

[i_like_sun]

Terrorism causes poverty. Therefore we're F***ed.

[Off_White]

Just give me that old style justice!

 

200 lashes? Isn't that more or less a death sentence?

 

It's worth pointing out that the report JayB posted posits that terrorists are more likely to spring from countries that lack civil rights. This news item tends to support that conclusion.

 

As an aside, it seems to me that Americans who are most "terrorist like", who justify torture, advocate nuking the general populace of other countries, support terrorist "freedom fighters" who are on "our side", and generally believe in brutal responses to opposition are often those least committed to civil rights for anyone who isn't just like them.

 

If poverty caused terrorism, world history would be even bloodier than it is.

[prole]

What might be more enlightening than looking at the demographic of individuals that actually carry out terrorist acts would be to trace the relationship between "terrorist groups", poverty, popular support, and the provision of social services that the state is either unwilling or unable to provide. But again, this ground has been covered before.

[tvashtarkatena]

Yes, this is quite old news.

 

It's so old it never was news. I never heard anyone argue this point of view.

[prole]

The economic/educational backgrounds of individual terrorists from the 9/11 hijackers to Osama have been discussed ad nauseum.

[tvashtarkatena]

Another self eating watermelon from JayB, king of the mobius debate style.

[JayB]

Another self eating watermelon from JayB, king of the mobius debate style.

 

"UK's Brown Says Poverty Breeds Terrorism,

Urges More Aid"

 

http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/terrorwar/analysis/2004/1101breed.htm

 

 

"Poverty 'fuelling terrorism'"

 

World leaders meeting at a development summit in Mexico have called for increased aid to poor countries to help stamp out extreme poverty as a motivation for terrorism."

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1886617.stm

 

"Finally, A Not-So-Bad Bush Doctrine: Poverty Breeds Terrorism"

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?pid=39

 

"Archbishop - terrorism down to poverty"

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article644776.ece

 

"UN warns poverty fuels terror."

 

"The war on terror cannot ever be won if the war on poverty isn't won," said Sachs, the UN Secretary-General's special adviser on the UN Millennium Development Goals."

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200508/10/eng20050810_201426.html

 

Et.....cetera.

[tvashtarkatena]

Google "Intelligent Design" and you'll come up with 100 times more articles.

[JayB]

Just give me that old style justice!

 

200 lashes? Isn't that more or less a death sentence?

 

It's worth pointing out that the report JayB posted posits that terrorists are more likely to spring from countries that lack civil rights. This news item tends to support that conclusion.

 

As an aside, it seems to me that Americans who are most "terrorist like", who justify torture, advocate nuking the general populace of other countries, support terrorist "freedom fighters" who are on "our side", and generally believe in brutal responses to opposition are often those least committed to civil rights for anyone who isn't just like them.

 

If poverty caused terrorism, world history would be even bloodier than it is.

 

I think that the link between political repression and terrorism is certainly more defensible than the notion that poverty breeds terrorism, but the connection is a rather loose one.

 

There's been plenty of political repression in sub-Saharan Africa, South America, etc - and there was extreme, sustained political repression in the Soviet Union, China, the Baltics, etc. In the latter cases, the severity and brutality of the state's repression was orders of magnitude more severe than anything that's been seen in the Middle East, with the possible exception of perhaps Iraq.

 

This suggest to me that there's perhaps more to the story than political repression.

 

 

[joblo7]

only a real large asshole does not feel himself getting fucked!!

[Peter_Puget]

What's Old is new again!

[KaskadskyjKozak]

 

more of what we get to look forward to paying for under Billary's wonderful "single payer" health care system.

[minx]

now that's just profound enough to be a bumper sticker

[joblo7]

CONSPIRACIES:

 

1) BOX CUTTERS/BEIGE PEOPLE/CHENEY/SILVERSTEIN/BUSH/IRAQ/IRAN

2)CONTROLLED DEMOLITION.

 

 

[Fairweather]

"Then the catastrophe came upon New York. On September 11, only three months after signing the lease between Silverstein and the Port Authorities, two large passenger jets crashed into the towers. Larry was lucky, that he was not responsible for liabilities towards the Port Authorities, since the disaster was an act of God. Quite the contrary happened. Larry Silverstein, despite not being the owner of the buildings, was the sole beneficiary of the insurance indemnity payments of more than 7 billion Dollars. Good for Larry that he had not forgotten to increase the insurance policies, just in time, when he signed the lease three months before the catastrophe happened: "Larry Silverstein, since July landlord of the towers, demands from the insurers 7,2 billion Dollars compensation, his speaker, Steve Solomon, said. ... The Port Authorities of New York and New Jersey, owners of the WTC, agree with Silverstein's demand." --Die Welt, Berlin, Oct 10, 2001.

 

seems like wealth does not guarantee against it either.

 

Of course. It was those damn "Silversteins" again. Hey V! I'll just bet "The Goldsteins" and "The Solheims" were in on it too. Get a life.

[joblo7]

"Then the catastrophe came upon New York. On September 11, only three months after signing the lease between Silverstein and the Port Authorities, two large passenger jets crashed into the towers. Larry was lucky, that he was not responsible for liabilities towards the Port Authorities, since the disaster was an act of God. Quite the contrary happened. Larry Silverstein, despite not being the owner of the buildings, was the sole beneficiary of the insurance indemnity payments of more than 7 billion Dollars. Good for Larry that he had not forgotten to increase the insurance policies, just in time, when he signed the lease three months before the catastrophe happened: "Larry Silverstein, since July landlord of the towers, demands from the insurers 7,2 billion Dollars compensation, his speaker, Steve Solomon, said. ... The Port Authorities of New York and New Jersey, owners of the WTC, agree with Silverstein's demand." --Die Welt, Berlin, Oct 10, 2001.

 

seems like wealth does not guarantee against it either.

 

Of course. It was those damn "Silversteins" again. Hey V! I'll just bet "The Goldsteins" and "The Solheims" were in on it too. Get a life.

 

predictable reality avoidance

[joblo7]

now that's just profound enough to be a bumper sticker

 

dedicated to ; fw/kkk/c'cocks/etal