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Just Why Does Yemen Attract Terrorists?
Jan 3rd, 2010 | 13 responses
RealClearWorld’s Kevin Sullivan explains why HERE.
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13 Responses to “Just Why Does Yemen Attract Terrorists?”
Isn't that interesting? Who knew that poverty and joblessness are correlated with criminal and terrorist activities?
dear GreenDreams: happy new year to you and yours! Nice to see you.
I wondered reading this, and your remark, I guess I was thinking about Madoff and the CFO of Enron, and others, that riches for some cause criminal but not terrorist activities? But, then there's Osama and all his wealth. How do you square these seeming sociological/ economic factors then, are they really causes, or are they coincidental, or other?
Happy New Year to you, Dr. Estes.
I think motivations change with circumstances. In the case of white collar crime by the wealthy, I think it's pure greed and arrogance, the belief that they're smart enough to get away with it. Not sure what Madoff's situation was before he started his Ponzi scheme, but it baffles me when someone who's set for life materially, risks it all to get a little more (or a lot more).
At the other end of the spectrum are the desperate poor. I believe they are easy marks for clever appeals to class war, religious war, etc. They know the system as it exists today is unfair to them, and it's a short hop from feeling discriminated against to being outraged and angry about what they see as, or are convinced to see as, a conspiracy by <insert villain here> to keep them and their family / ethnic group / nation / religion down. The Mullah, or the charismatic leader of some group tells them their family will always suffer until <named villain> is defeated.
As with our own populace, there are relatively few who are knowingly complicit in whatever wicked game they're playing, and many more who are manipulated, usually by nationalism or religion, into being “cannon fodder” for the powerful plotters. I think Osama is a true believer in his cause just as I believe Rumsfeld and Kissinger were true believers in Friedmanite economics when they participated in Pinochet's class war in Chile.
I've worked in many desperately poor parts of the world, and believe that at minimal cost, providing a smidgin of opportunity could vastly reduce the numbers of those desperate enough to strap on a suicide vest (or brief).
Poverty is an opportunity for those whom seek to use people for their own agendas. It is not the reason for Yemeni terrorism. Tribalism is probably the greatest factor IMO. It’s pretty much country bumpkin greed and has been for quite some time.
South Yemen was it's own nation before the civil war in the mid 1990's. North Yemen helped South Yemen get rid of the British and later the Soviets. South Yemen had agreed to become one nation with the North, and, were well on their way to doing so when Canadian Occidental and TOTAL Oil Companies (France) found oil. Suddenly the government of South Yemen didn’t want to merge with their Arab brothers anymore. Civil war ensued when the South launched air attacks on the North’s capital city of Sana. After a few weeks of civil war, the South lost. They pretty much caused their own poverty with treachery.
Terrorism was evident in Aden, South Yemen long before the current hostilities and before the civil war. When our Air Force staged aircraft there in support of our expedition into Somalia, there was a bungled terrorist attempt to blow up the Movenpick hotel where our Air Force people were staying. The bombing attempt exploded in the parking lot before it got into the hotel, but it served to remove our military from Aden post haste. Other incidences occurred before and after this also.
Well said. The more big wake up call was the Cole bombing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/opinion/03sou…
I hope you don't mind if add to that GD. The poorest people are most likely to risk everything they have, because they have the least to lose.
“…Friedmanite economics when they participated in Pinochet's class war in Chile.
I've worked in many desperately poor parts of the world, and believe that at minimal cost, providing a smidgin of opportunity could vastly reduce the numbers of those desperate enough to strap on a suicide vest (or brief).”
man, “friedmanite economics,” you are very sharp to mention that and Chile, a WHOLE other subject for another time.
Small opportunities for the very poor, as you mention. I'd agree from what I've seen of the non-corrupt micro-loans, including cell phone distrib in villages in India and throughout Africa. I wonder how we can do more? Just regular folks, how can they do more to help with 'the smidgen'?
You said it better than I could say it re 'mob psychology'… many dont realize there is a positive aspect to so-called mob psych, in the raising of awareness of entire people being born free, for instance (contrary to what they've been forced to). But then there are those who do not lead, but rather prey upon that awakening. What can we put in place for 'awakenings' so people are not taken off by the Amins and Papa Docs and Mugabwe's of the world, including now Somalia and Yemen and Palestine and elsewhere? Is there something to teach, tell, inform that would make this 'capture' of souls for grievances' sake less? yet make progress in the group being treated decently?
When I am with my own ethnic groups GreenDreams, we have those who are sure every failure or sleight is because we are Latino/ Native Americans/ kids of immigrants. We have amongst us those who say differently” “Yes, we're discriminated against, sometimes.' THen we have people like myself and others who say, 'Interesting if true, but so what, we have to try to move onward, regardless. Take down what walls we can, leap over others.'
Listening to your words, it seems our kith and kin, yours or mine, who believe 'everything/ everyone' is discriminatory are most vulnerable to being swooped up by a leader who doesnt want parity only, but also wants power (deference, obesiance, fawning) and revenge and perhaps other things too. Does this make sense, that in each group there is only a segment that is most vulnerable to becoming, for lack of a better word, fundementalist?
good point ProfE. My father, an immigrant/ refugee family to this country, the great USA…. used to say Beware if people have nothing left to lose, they'll die for what they believe before anyone else can kill them first
Kinda' like why the South attracts Rednecks, it's where they feel at home.
The poor don't start revolutions, they are to busy staying alive. The middle class does… Where Danton, Robespierre, Garibaldi, Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Ho Chi Minh ever poor? Only members of a Middle Class that are reasonably well educated and are not worried about where their next bowl of gruel is going to come from have the time and the energy to figure out how badly they are being screwed…
Hi DQ. I certainly didn't mean that poor people are the source of terrorism or criminality. They are desperate and sometimes easy targets of charismatic ideologues. My point is that improving the lot of the poor and desperate reduces the appeal of strapping on a suicide jock strap.
I'm going to have to throw some duck food your way Duck.
The Cole bombing was after the attack on the Movenpick hotel and after the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanganyika. So why was the “wake up call” the Cole bombing? Somebody hit the snooze button? Maybe…Bill Clinton? Or…Bill Cohen?
Lets say Cohen, he’s a republican.
OK, I meant the Yemen wake up call. Youdontknowquack.com