Nicholas Kristof: Reduce Textile Tariffs to Eliminate Pakistani Terrorism

Having recently informing us that "chemicals threaten our bodies" (see: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.com/2010/05/kristof-cancer-chemicals-clueless.html), New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof today would have us believe that swamping the U.S. with Pakistani garment exports would free the U.S. of radical Islamic terror. Kristof opines in an op-ed entitled "Pakistan and Times Sq.":

"If we want Times Square to be safer from terrorists, we need to start by helping make Pakistan safer as well.

. . . .

Pro-American Pakistanis fighting against extremism have been pleading for years for the United States to cut tariffs on Pakistani garment exports, to nurture the textile industry and stabilize the country."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/13/opinion/13kristof.html?hp

Kristof, however, ignores the fact that the majority of the hijackers in the September 11 attacks were from Saudi Arabia. He also forgets that Osama bin Laden is from Saudi Arabia.

According to Kristof's logic, instead of bowing to King Abdullah, Obama should be asking Saudi Arabia to create schools where boys and girls are integrated and where the focus of their education is secular. Interesting in theory, but will it happen? Not in our lifetimes. Might this prevent terrorism? More likely it would cause a wave of terror attacks by Saudis angered by U.S. meddling.

Further to Kristof's line of reasoning, economic aid from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia would "stabilize" this country and prevent terrorism emanating therefrom. This is patently absurd.

But now let's return to Pakistan: Many of the inexpensive goods manufactured in Pakistan and exported to the U.S. are the product of child slave labor. By expanding the market for such goods, wouldn't the demand for child slave labor in Pakistan also increase? And what positive effect, if any, would this have on the export of terrorism from Pakistan as these abused children grow older?

I am almost tempted to suggest that Kristof go back to writing about "chemicals that threaten our bodies".