The American Mind

Summertime means movies, many of which are sequels. John Edwards wants to get into the act with a sequel of his own emulating President John Kennedy’s Peace Corps:

The plan Mr. Edwards presented yesterday — which he dubbed “A Strategy to Shut Down Terrorists and Stop Terrorism Before It Starts” — calls for a 10,000-person “Marshall Corps” to deal with issues ranging from worldwide poverty and economic development to clean drinking water and micro-lending. He said investing in those areas would shore up weak nations and help ensure that terrorism does not take root there. That, he said, would allow the country to stop potential terrorists before they even join the ranks.

There are “thousands committed to violence” today, he said, and America needs to use all of its tools to go after them. But he said millions more people are “sitting on the fence” about whether to join those ranks. “We have to offer them a hand to our side instead of a shove to the other side of that fence,” he said.

We also know how much the Peace Corps led to the demise of the Soviet Union and global Communism. Edwards must have took his history lesson from an old, edited page off Wikipedia.

While members of the Marshall Corps would do plenty of good would it really discourage people from becoming Islamist terrorists? Clifford May doesn’t think so:

“Humanitarian aid is a good thing. I approve of that. But it doesn’t really have much to do with the causes of terrorism,” Mr. May said. ” Mohamed Atta, the lead terrorist on 9/11, was based in Germany, was well-educated. The causes of terrorism are several, but poverty is not one of them.”

“Marshall Corps.” That sounds good. Almost good enough to go on a bumper sticker. We know how much Edwards loves bumper sticker slogans.

“Peace Corps Is Edwards Terror Plan” [via Captain’s Quarters]