Saturday, February 16, 2008

That new Iraq policy in full

George Bush --

"You've got resources -- we want them, we'll exploit them and leave behind"

Actually it's Bush explaining what he says is not his policy in sub-Saharan Africa.

He also has what he says is a national security motivation for his aid policies in Africa --

Secondly, there are two reasons why. Now, one, conditions of life overseas matters to the security of the United States. In other words, if there's hopelessness, then it's liable that extremists who are recruiting people to create havoc not only in their respective countries or neighborhoods, but also in our country -- if there's hopelessness, they have a better chance to recruit. So it's in our national security interest, Edwin, that we deal with the conditions that enable ideologues -- the ideologues of hate to recruit.

But in fact this is the logic (poverty=terrorism) that enrages right-wingers when it's someone other than Bush outlining it. It also doesn't explain why Africa is not a global exporter of terrorism. Nor why post-invasion Iraq could be.

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