A few months ago I read Greg Mortenson’s compelling book, Three Cups of Tea. After a failed attempt at climbing K2 in Pakistan he found himself at the mercy of Muslims in a small village at the base of the mountain who nursed him back to health. Long story short, he repaid them by helping them fund the building of a school for girls in their village, a mission that has since taken on a life of its own and resulted in the building of numerous schools throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mr. Mortenson tells his story in a fast-paced thrill-a-minute account in Three Cups of Tea.

Somewhat off-putting is the underlying political message of the book. One is left with the impression that the American answer to Islamic radicalism is only to drop bombs on innocent villagers whereas Mr. Mortenson and his liberal friends have implemented the only real solution, the building of schools. Books not bombs, as it were.

Nicholas Kristof wrote recently in the New York Times:

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.

But such a conclusion ignores the reality that the Bush administration has pumped billions of dollars into these same kinds of efforts. Secretary of State Condolezza Rice, writing in the current issue of Foreign Affairs:

So even as we worked with President Pervez Musharraf to fight terrorists and extremists, we invested more than $3 billion to strengthen Pakistani society - building schools and health clinics, providing emergency relief after the 2005 earthquake, and supporting political parties and the rule of law.

While I admire the work Greg Mortenson is doing, I only wish he could keep it above the political fray.