between the North and South. The LDCs are no longer willing to accept a world system in which wealth is so unevenly distributed
Many people in the South blame much of their poverty on past colonialist suppdttression and on what they believe to be continuing efforts by the EDCs to dominate the LDCs by keeping them economically and politically weak. While such feelings do not justify terrorism, it is important to understand that the widespread grinding poverty among the LDCs is one of the factors that led to the rage behind the Septem- ber 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. President Bush later indirectly acknowledged that by pledging to take such actions as doubling the size of the Peace Corps so that it could "join a new effort to encourage development and education and opportunity in the Islamic world," with the goal of "eliminating threats and containing resentment" in order to "seek a just and peaceful world beyond the war on terror. The point, whether or not you believe that the EDCs oppress the LDCs, is that choices must be made. One option for the wealthy countries is to ignore the vast difference in economic circumstances between themselves and the LDCs, The other option is to do more, much more, to help. Both options carry substantial costs.