That argument has died and gone to hell. What persists, however, is the argument that poverty is a root cause of terrorism even though it's now abundantly clear that the terrorists, particularly the authors of Sept. 11, grew up in prosperous, educated, middle-class families. In the Arab countries of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Morocco, the terrorists sprang not from poverty but from religious fanaticism, where radical imams preached Islamic jihad. The message was intellectual and cultural, not economic or social. This requires us to return the fight on the cultural and educational front. Both candidates must address how to do that.
Islamist terrorism in the Laqueur scenario will continue in the Middle East until the forces of civilization sap their confidence in their hope of forcing a malignant version of Islam on the world. The Islamists must be persuaded over time that they will lose more than they gain. This may be dawning on some of them already in Iraq and Afghanistan (and maybe Libya). But it won't happen overnight. Fanaticism mellows over generations. The harsh attitudes of young men and women may be mellowing now in Iran.
If democratic institutions can take hold in the Middle East - a big if - such institutions would offer future generations realistic alternatives to suicidal terrorism. None of this is rocket science, but modern campaigns, reduced to celebrity endorsements and television sound bites, don't encourage a discussion of issues.
The Democratic National Convention was a carnival of frothy appeals to remembrance of heroics of a distant war, with no consideration that times and wars have changed. We can be mildly reassured that John Kerry now stands by his vote to go to war on Iraq, but his subsequent vote against funding the troops, and his suggestion that he would bring them home before the Iraqis have established order, reinforces his reputation for sending "mixed signals."
George Bush has shown that we can destroy a ruthless dictator, disrupt terrorist camps and put intelligence to work to prevent future mischief. But we're dealing with a hydra-headed monster that grows a new head every time we behead one of them.
The president has an opportunity at the Republican convention later this month in New York to put "the vision thing" (as his father would call it) to work. He has an opportunity to frame the important issues of foreign policy without cluttering them with an excess of nuance.