Thus The Wall Street Journal today. “Military might alone won’t defeat Islamic State and its ilk, writes economist Hernando de Soto,” the newspaper introduces his essay. “The US needs to promote economic empowerment and entrepreneurship to give the Arab world another path, he says.” According to the Peruvian economist, Peru won the only victory against a terrorist movement since the fall of communism without the intervention of foreign troops or significant outside financial support for its military. That was between 1980 and 1993. In the next two decades, Peru’s output has grown twice as fast as the average in the rest of Latin America. De Soto and his associates from the Institute of Liberty and Democracy in Lima, Peru, have purportedly been successful in applying their model to Tunisia, as well. Economic empowerment and entrepreneurship only need a kick-start, and that is what is now needed in the Arab world. De Soto’s essay does not address America’s ability or willingness to promote the capitalist cure for terrorism, though. By and large, America is despised in the Arab world. It cannot possibly promote anything else but distrust and hatred. Besides, it’s closest allies in the Arab world are neither able nor willing to promote economic empowerment and entrepreneurship among their less fortunate neighbors. In short, the capitalist cure, if it is a cure at all, cannot be applied without a great deal of goodwill and trust. And they are sorely lacking in America’s case.