Fighting Poverty Helps Fight Terrorism
Note to KXYL's James Williamson and his best "students" who can't quite seem to get their minds around this !
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Fighting Poverty Helps Fight Terrorism
By Paul Strand
Washington Sr. Correspondent
CBN.com – Many Americans may wonder why they should spend billions of dollars to dig Africa out of debt and poverty. But this aid may benefit America. It may help dry up some of the most fertile terrorist grounds.
The President's point man on aid, Andrew Natsios, said terrorists rise up from and flock to ailing states.
“They love countries with weak institutions where there's a lot of corruption,” he said. “In fact, they love countries with no government. Why? Because they can operate with impunity. So there's a direct connection between our foreign aid programs and the protection and security of Americans.”
Charlie McCormack heads the group "Save the Children."
“I think we only have to think about Afghanistan five years ago to see what poverty and despair can do to a country,” McCormack said.
Professor Sandra Joireman not only studies and teaches international politics but lobbies for the aid group "Bread for the World."
“You know, Afghanistan fell apart and then became a breeding ground for terrorists, and not just terrorists from Afghanistan, but from all over the world, who'd go to Afghanistan for training,” Joireman said.
“Drugs, crime terrorism, were incubated in Afghanistan,” McCormack said. “We're starting to see it happen in other very poor countries.”
“We need to look at the kind of conditions that breed terrorism and among them are hunger, poverty and disease,” said Rev. Jim McDonald of “Bread for the World.”
“And particularly AIDS,” Joireman added. “That devastates populations and leaves us with generations of orphans who don't even have their parents to sort them out and tell them what's right and wrong. These are serious security threats to the United States.”
Even actor George Clooney has used the national security argument with conservative audiences. He has lobbied for aid to Africa.
“You know, this is the best fight against terrorism there is: you help support these countries, they don't fester people who want to kill us,” Clooney said.
“If people have no governments and no future, and no opportunity, if young people are unemployed, if teenagers have no hope and no family structure… We all know what that leads to,” McCormack said.
“There's a direct connection between failed states, collapsed states, chaos, and humanitarian emergencies, and where Al-Qaeda and another criminal networks that do human trafficking that do narcotics trade, that do counterfeiting, that run criminal networks... all of which fund Al-Qaeda and another terrorist organizations,” Natsios said.
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Iraq New Terror Breeding Ground
War Created Haven, CIA Advisers Report
By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 14, 2005; Page A01
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