Connect the Dots

The US has refused to cut agricultural subsidies to its farmers for years, and it refused again at the recent WTO meeting in Cancún. Thomas Friedman laments that fact, arguing that a real connection exists between US hypocrisy on world trade issues and the roots of anti-American terrorism. Countries like Pakistan, mired in poverty, would produce fewer angry fundamentalists willing to bomb the US if the world trade playing field were leveled, he argues. If the US were serious about preventing terrorism, the Bush administration would take the lead in trade talks and cut American farmers’ subsidies, thus giving developing countries a chance to rise out of extreme poverty. Until it does something about its economic hypocrisy, Friedman says, the US cannot expect to see anti-American sentiment – and terrorism itself – disappear. – YaleGlobal