Friday, August 12, 2005
The Terror War: Let's Explain It Again
Kudos to Michael Totten for putting it in simple terms: "it's not all about you".
So many Westerners, liberal and conservative alike, are only interested in the Middle East and the wider Islamic world at the points of inter-civilizational contact, when and where its problems intersect with us and become our problems. It's understandable, but it's blinkered. Islamism exists independently of the West, not merely in reaction to it, and it would continue to exist if America and the rest of the West did not. It's not all about us.Indeed. He provides specific examples to bolster his point (and to counter Prof. Pape, who is frequently cited as an authority to "prove" that occupation causes terrorism).
By all means, read the whole thing.
