This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, December 30, 2008.

I'm Caleb Brown.

How should the new administration think about and frame the debate over terrorism?

What's the lasting legacy of the Bush administration's

thinking and phrasing about terrorism.

Christopher Preble, the Cato Institute's Director of Foreign Policy Studies, believes the

Obama team has an opportunity to dramatically

improve U.S. security.

Rebel will be among the speakers at the Cato Institute's Counterterrorism Conference

scheduled for January 12th and 13th you can register at Cato.org

Well I think I think most people in Washington do think in terms of root causes and

so you hear arguments along the lines of economic

Distress or economic a lack of a lack of economic opportunity drives people to terrorism that President Bush made a related

argument with respect to lack of political opportunity and gives rise to a sense of powerlessness,

political powerlessness and inability to influence the government.

And I think neither of those explanations, which are very popular in Washington, are very useful

because the fact is that there are many you know poor people around

the world and many people who lack economic opportunities for a whole host of

different reasons but but only a very tiny percentage of them become terrorists.

On the flip side, you know, most of the 9-11 hijackers were relatively well off. They were also relatively well educated and so this argument about

lack about educational opportunities or the other building blocks would

allow you to to achieve success economically.

...