City Desk: Literature Night

Again, America must take the lead. Palmer writes that “there is no substitute for American diplomatic and political leadership in building coalitions of the willing to help citizens successfully confront their dictators.” It’s sadly ironic that the loudest voices for so-called international law today are basically favoring order (the supposed rights of dictators who happen to hold power) over morality (the actual rights of individual human beings). We need to foster a climate of international law in which justice actually takes precedence; perhaps it is precisely because President Bush envisions such a development that his administration has been so slow to give up on the U.N. But whether we use the existing U.N., or create an entirely new system, America’s duty is clear: rid the world of dictators, for the sake of their peoples and in the interest of our own national security.

■ Rachel Ehrenfeld has done valuable investigative work on terrorism for various journals, including this one; she has now come forward with a book-length study that repays attention. Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed—And How to Stop It (Bonus, 267 pp., $24.95) describes the complex interconnections of terrorist groups and international crime organizations. Much of the dirty money comes from drug trafficking—which suggests, to me at least, that we could strike a fierce blow against the terrorists by legalizing drugs, and thus removing the artificial price support that is helping to fund the terrorists’ war against America. The drug-lords are not the only culprits; Ehrenfeld also details the financial backing given terrorists by, among others, the Saudis and the Palestinian government. As former CIA director James Woolsey writes in his foreword: “Rachel Ehrenfeld has done all serious students of [terrorism] a great service—by following the money.”

About the Author

Richard Brookhiser

Historian Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute.

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Again, America must take the lead. Palmer writes that “there is no substitute for American diplomatic and political leadership in building coalitions of the willing to help citizens successfully confront their dictators.” It’s sadly ironic that the loudest voices for so-called international law today are basically favoring order (the supposed rights of dictators who happen to hold power) over morality (the actual rights of individual human beings). We need to foster a climate of international law in which justice actually takes precedence; perhaps it is precisely because President Bush envisions such a development that his administration has been so slow to give up on the U.N. But whether we use the existing U.N., or create an entirely new system, America’s duty is clear: rid the world of dictators, for the sake of their peoples and in the interest of our own national security.

■ Rachel Ehrenfeld has done valuable investigative work on terrorism for various journals, including this one; she has now come forward with a book-length study that repays attention. Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed—And How to Stop It (Bonus, 267 pp., $24.95) describes the complex interconnections of terrorist groups and international crime organizations. Much of the dirty money comes from drug trafficking—which suggests, to me at least, that we could strike a fierce blow against the terrorists by legalizing drugs, and thus removing the artificial price support that is helping to fund the terrorists’ war against America. The drug-lords are not the only culprits; Ehrenfeld also details the financial backing given terrorists by, among others, the Saudis and the Palestinian government. As former CIA director James Woolsey writes in his foreword: “Rachel Ehrenfeld has done all serious students of [terrorism] a great service—by following the money.”