The Saudi Challenge
Tom Friedman discusses the Saudi Baby Boom and what the nation must do to weather it. But his analysis is marred by the repetition of the line that the roots of terrorism are in poverty. Maybe, but the poor regions of Arabia only supplied the suicides. The hate, funding and planning came from the scion of a wealthy Arabian family.

The "roots of terrorism" argument is hogwash. The only way for the Muslim world to catch up is to import the resources that have enabled the rest of the world to leave it in the dust: education, science, liberal democracy and free markets. Too many of the smart and ambitious in these countries emigrate to the West. The ones who remain are either rulers, who live high on the backs of the poor, or the less bright, but brutish, like Saddam, the Taliban and the Mullahs in Iran.