Adam Schiff: “the terrorists who attacked this country on September 11 emerged from part of the world where oppression of popular will…”

“the terrorists who attacked this country on September 11 emerged from part of the world where oppression of popular will often finds its outlet in Jihadi extremism and hatred of the West, especially the United States. Throughout much of the Muslim world, brittle, autocratic regimes jealously guard wealth and political power, while the vast majority of the citizens languish in poverty. Despite the Arab world's vast oil wealth and its rich cultural and intellectual history, the region has languished, in large part, because its leaders refused to enact the liberalizations necessary to unleash the power of hundreds of millions of people. After the 9/11 attacks, the President and other senior administration officials vowed to ``drain the swamp'' that birthed al Qaeda and other radical Islamists. Now, after two wars, thousands of casualties and hundreds of billions of dollars, the people of the Arab and greater Muslim world are beginning to drain the swamp on their own. Last fall, the people of Afghanistan, who only 3 years ago were suffering under the medieval yoke of the Taliban, voted in large numbers in that country's first presidential election, and later this year, they will return to the polls to select a new parliament. In early January, the Palestinian people took concrete steps to end the Arafat era's corruption and embrace of terrorism and elected Mahmoud Abbas as their new president.”