State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf recently blamed “lack of opportunity for jobs” as a root cause of terrorism in the Middle East.
Her assertion, made in an interview Monday, that “we cannot kill our way out of this war” is unlikely to replace “I have not yet begun to fight” on lists of famous military proclamations.
But it should highlight the importance of crushing terrorism, by both military and economic efforts, in order to give freedom a chance to flourish in the Middle East.
“What makes these 17-year-old kids pick up an AK-47 instead of trying to start a business?” Harf asked. One obvious answer is a lack of freedom and opportunity. And the Obama administration has been AWOL on that front.
That lack of economic opportunity is clearly shown by the life of Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi, who in 2010 ignited the Arab Spring.
Bouazizi’s father died when he was 3 years old. When his stepfather became ill, Bouazizi quit school to support his family by selling fruits and vegetables on the streets. He quickly tired of paying bribes in order to maintain his business. After officials confiscated his property on Dec. 17, 2010, he lit himself on fire in protest. His death inspired young Arabs to launch the Arab Spring movement.
When Bouazizi’s brother was asked what his brother might have hoped his sacrifice would mean to the Arab world, he reportedly replied, “That the poor also have the right to buy and sell.”
As Heritage senior research fellow James Phillips has pointed out:
It is no coincidence that Tunisia and Egypt, the first two countries to experience the Arab Spring, were hampered by socialist legacies that created corrosive corruption and dysfunctional bureaucracies that were perceived to oppress rather than serve citizens. The state-dominated economic systems adopted by Tunis, Cairo, and many other Arab governments in the 1950s created structural and institutional problems that undermined economic growth and job creation.
As a result of such policies, the Middle East and North Africa have the highest youth unemployment rates in the world. According to the Heritage Foundation’s 2014 “Global Agenda for Economic Freedom,” “The high unemployment rates [in the Middle East and North Africa], which are most pronounced among younger members of the workforce, have boosted political discontent, have undermined many governments, and continue to cast a long shadow on the region’s economic prospects.”
The “Global Agenda” identifies action items like protecting property rights and free competition, discarding failed socialist ideologies, and reducing trade barriers to create new opportunities in the Middle East. As the Heritage Foundation’s “Solutions 2014” recommends, “The U.S. must therefore be prepared to fight a war of ideas against Islamist extremist ideology both at home and abroad.” One way to fight in this war of ideas is to push Middle Eastern countries to allow new and better economic opportunities for those who are targets for terrorist recruitment.
