Misdiagnosing the Problem

The usually clear-thinking Michael Barone goes astray:

Here is a map showing the location of riots protesting the Danish cartoons. And here's a link to Thomas Barnett's "nonintegrated gap." Notice the similarity? Barnett, as faithful readers of this blog will know, argues that the major task before us in the "functioning core" (North America, much of South America, Europe, India, Japan, and East Asia) is to integrate the "nonintegrated gap" (the Muslim world from the Maghreb to Pakistan, Indonesia, as well as the Philippines and part of Andean Latin America) into the free-market, rule-of-law core. The riots occurring largely in the gap (and in Muslim communities in Europe) are just the latest symptoms of the problem.

How has a problem that's endemic to the cultures of the "nonintegrated gap" become our problem? We don't force their culture (and the resulting ignorance and poverty) on them, they do it to themselves. For more, read this.