Western investment can help conquer terrorism.

• Author: Arafeh, Rudian
• Position: Economics

THE ROOTS OF RADICALISM in the Middle East are as tangled as the tales of Scheherazade, but one particular branch of the tree that is feeding the terrorist mentality is the dismal state of the economy in the countries that are spawning the Mohamed Attas of the world. Unemployment exceeds 50% in Iraq, 25% in Egypt, and 26% for males 20 to 24 years old in Saudi Arabia--the birthplace of Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. Moreover, nine out of 10 Egyptians searching for jobs have college diplomas.

American businesses hold the key to defusing this particular aspect of the terrorist scourge. Over the long term, putting the vast jobless population of the Middle East to work has the potential to help dispel some of the anti-American sentiment that has placed our country on a perpetual terror alert. Seeing Americans and American companies up close and personal will help plant the seeds for peace. It is, after all, more difficult to hate the adversary you know than the one you don't.

Coincidentally, U.S. enterprises that invest in these developing Middle East countries will be able to avail themselves of a young, educated, highly motivated, and relatively inexpensive pool of labor. This is a case where being a good corporate citizen also can amount to smart business.

As a native-born Syrian, an American citizen, and a longtime U.S. businessman, I can see the value of this strategy. I grew up in Damascus and still have family in Syria. I came to the U.S. to attend college in 1982 and have lived here ever since. However, for the first 17 years of my life, I saw the U.S. through Middle Eastern eyes. My own house was an island of neutrality--my father is a French-educated physician who instilled in his offspring a broad tolerance for the ways of the West--but my friends, teachers, and, particularly the media, conveyed a different message. In retrospect, I realize that I was witnessing the festering of the anti-American rage that literally exploded before our eyes on Sept 11.

In Syria and elsewhere around the Middle East, particularly in countries with a government-controlled press, the U.S. traditionally has been demonized as a power- and money-hungry empire bent on taking over the world and remaking it in its own capitalist, materialistic image. In some places today, those views finally are being tempered by a more open press, without such an overtly political and/or religious agenda. Yet, it will be difficult to undo the years of conditioning caused by this drumbeat of America-bashing.

Because of my heritage, I also understand the more rational origins of the hostility toward the U.S. in the Middle East. Fairly or unfairly, in the corner of the world where I was born, American foreign policy is perceived to be driven purely by economic interests. Syria sends soldiers into Lebanon? No U.S. intervention. Civil war and ethnic cleansing in Rwanda? Hands off. Iraq invades Kuwait? Oil is at stake; send in the troops.

In addition, there is the sad truth that Washington has...