Bombs or schools?

From the New York Times, July 13, 2008:

"Since 9/11, Westerners have tried two approaches to fight terrorism in Pakistan, President Bush’s and Greg Mortenson’s.

"Mr. Bush has focused on military force and provided more than $10 billion — an extraordinary sum in the foreign-aid world — to the highly unpopular government of President Pervez Musharraf. This approach has failed: the backlash has radicalized Pakistan’s tribal areas so that they now nurture terrorists in ways that they never did before 9/11.

"Mr. Mortenson, a frumpy, genial man from Montana, takes a diametrically opposite approach, and he has spent less than one-ten-thousandth as much as the Bush administration. He builds schools in isolated parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan, working closely with Muslim clerics and even praying with them at times.

"The only thing that Mr. Mortenson blows up are boulders that fall onto remote roads and block access to his schools. ...

"So a lone Montanan staying at the cheapest guest houses has done more to advance U.S. interests in the region than the entire military and foreign policy apparatus of the Bush administration."

Let me allow Greg Mortenson the last word:

“ 'Schools are a much more effective bang for the buck than missiles or chasing some Taliban around the country,' says Mr. Mortenson, who is an Army veteran."

Listen to Greg Mortenson, President-elect Obama.  Please.