David Brooks columns aren't entirely useless

Today's Op-Ed piece by David Brooks had 3 very interesting points to make about the recent terrorist attacks and what they say about the new Jihadies. Moneyshot: Roy emphasizes that the jihadists are the products of globalization, and its enemies. They are detached from any specific country or culture, he says, and take up jihad because it attaches them to something. They are generally not politically active before they take up jihad. They are looking to strike a vague blow against the system and so give their lives (and deaths) shape and meaning. [...] The first implication, clearly, is that democratizing the Middle East, while worthy in itself, may not stem terrorism. Terrorists are bred in London and Paris as much as anywhere else. Second, the jihadists' weakness is that they do not spring organically from the Arab or Muslim world. They claim to speak for the Muslim masses, as earlier radicals claimed to speak for the proletariat. But they don't. Surely a key goal for U.S. policy should be to isolate the nationalists from the jihadists. Third, terrorism is an immigration problem. Terrorists are spawned when educated, successful Muslims still have trouble sinking roots into their adopted homelands. Countries that do not encourage assimilation are not only causing themselves trouble, but endangering others around the world as well. This is why the US is less likely to ever produce home-grown terrorists then say the Netherlands: The US educational system emphasizes integration and muslims from different backgrounds are assimilated into the society, while the one in the Netherlands is all about tolerance and multiculturalism and leaving their immigrants decide what kind of schools they want and what is taught in it, to the point that they have Madaress in Amsterdam. This is why Theo Van Goch's killer was born and raised in the Netherlands, while all of the 9/11 Highjackers were foreigners. If Europe is to survive the militant islamic culture, it has to enforce cultural assimilation in its schools, and stop doing shit like that and the US needs to stop schools like these!