Brennan article

Submitted by Ha Shamir (United States), Aug 19, 2009 at 13:53

1. Ascribing all thoughts to President Obama is truly enbarrassing. Not having read Mr Brennan's speech I can only comment based on Mr Pipes' report.

2. It is true that poverty and absence of western style education do not cause terrorism, but poor people with only Islamic edecation are prone to accept terrorism as a pathway to personal improvement, witness the Taliban and Uighur and the Philippine insurgents for example. However the 9/11 and other terrorists including many Falastinian did/do indeed receive western style education in addition to Islamic, which proves that it is not only the religious or civil educational components alone that drive the jihadists.

3. I agree that a promising initiative to reduce terrorism is to raise the standard of living of the poorest on Earth. I question if the US has the ability to achieve such a goal, absent the cooperation of totalitarian leaders in Islamic countries and others.

4. While it is useful to criticise an administration, it would be better if constructive suggestions were also made that could actually be welcomed by the administration.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".