IRVINE, CA--On the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on our way of life, we should pay tribute to the creators of that way of life, said Dr. Onkar Ghate, resident fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute.
      "To those who caught even a glimpse of daily life in Afghanistan," said Dr. Ghate, "the contrast to life in the United States is shocking. In that primitive country there are few cars or paved roads, no shopping malls or bountiful grocery stores, virtually no high-rises, little in the way of entertainment, few hospitals, no high-tech devices. What there is, in abundance, is the backbreaking labor of a subhuman existence. Unlike America, Afghanistan has scant material wealth and virtually no industrialization.
      "Why? What explains this lack? Only one factor: the absence of freedom."
      "The American way of life is, fundamentally, a life of individual liberty," said Dr. Ghate. "Devoid of the freedom that America's men in uniform safeguard, Afghanistan lacked the type of person who flourishes only under freedom: the businessman. The businessman is the one who devotes his mind to producing wealth. He is the creator of the American way of life. Without his present and past actions, our daily lives would resemble the dismal existence of the Afghanis.
      "The terrorists understand this, which is why they attacked the heart of American business, Manhattan and the World Trade Center. It is time we understood it as well."
      "The attacks of September 11 have made people more acutely aware of the value of the American way of life--and of the policemen and soldiers who defend it," said Dr. Ghate. "But the thousands of businessmen who perished on that date, and their allies-in-spirit who survived, are the heroes who make our way of life a daily reality--and deserve to be honored as well."

ARI resident fellow Onkar Ghate is available for interviews on this topic.