Reading the special report in the Times yesterday on the WTC/Pentagon attacks, two things became very clear. Our customs screening must be much more thorough and include a record of when someone has travelled outside the country and to where. According to this report, the hijackers made several international trips in the year leading up to Sept. 11. I don't know enough about our Customs practices to say whether there was a breakdown in communication between them and other government departments, or if an overhaul of customs procedures is needed. Second, and more importantly, it is becoming clear that the country we need to deal with forcefully and decisively before any other, save Afghanistan and perhaps Sudan, is Saudi Arabia. The country is not only needlessly oppressive and run by a regime that is solely concerned with covering its own ass, but it is a greater breeding ground for terrorism than any other. As with my belief of what needs to be done in Afghanistan, I don't think our, or any, government has the political clout, the backing or the will to remedy this situation. It would be an ugly and complicated affair to topple the Saudi government and replace it with a more democratic one (if that's what the Saudi people want). I put will last on the list of the three things our government lacks, because even if it had the will, the other two factors (political clout and backing) would supercede its will to act. I think it will take two or three more attacks on the scale of the WTC/Pentagon in other countries to shake the world enough to deal with the problem. The middle east and Africa alike are ugly quagmires of repression and wealth disparity to such a degree that for many the concept of democracy is nice, but right now what they'd really like is a job, a house and some food. You can't have the former (a peaceful democracy) without the latter. To that end, the UN needs to become a much more active and forceful body. If it means to live up to its declaration of human rights, it needs to look hard at the true problems of the world (sorry, Zionism doesn't make the top 20) and possible solutions which are harder still.
- posted by levinson @ 11/05/2001 08:30:00 AM