Thank goodness someone understands the root of the problem! We in the west, or more precisely the UK, gave the people of the middle-east a cause due to our vile treatment of the Arab nations as demonstrated in British foreign policy over several generations. That same foreign policy extended over parts of Africa, India, Australia, the Americas and, closer to home, Ireland and Scotland.
Even today, long after the term 'empire' was dropped, the British government continues to hold dominion over far-flung parts of the world that the vast majority of citizens could not pinpoint on a map.
While waging war against poorly armed and poorly defended countries in the middle-east, the British government has repeatedly proclaimed that the UK supports Israel and declares that Israel has every right to defend itself against aggression. Given that millions in north Africa and the middle-east are of the moslem faith, it is hardly surprising that militant elements in those places subjected to various forms of abuse and mistreatment at the hands of the UK and its friends might feel hatred towards the people who have caused their ongoing distress.
It is no different from the situation that provoked the Scots and the Irish to rebel at various times against the bullying English crown and subsequently, the British parliament. The Americans and the Indians eventually kicked us out of their territories because they were big enough and strong enough whereas the little countries continued to be mistreated by their English masters. That is ongoing - witness the attitude towards both Scotland and the people of N.Ireland over 'Brexit' from the party which represents only the rich and the land-owning elements of society through the oligarchy that poses as democratic government in the UK.
Perhaps if the UK government were to dissociate this country from Israel, Saudi Arabia, the USA and the UAE, we might gain some respect from those nations persecuted by ourselves in conjunction with the aforementioned. It might also help, eventually, to alter the way in which this country is viewed by those militant elements who currently believe we are fair game in their evil, revengeful campaign of terror. We can never win against the kind of enemy prepared to act as we have witnessed so many times in recent years since the 2001 events in New York demonstrated what can be achieved by determined people with nothing to lose. It is for that reason, that those who would claim outrages such as 7/7 and Wednesday's lone-wolf suicide mission are wrong to declare such events as failures. To do so is to fail to understand terrorism and if there were no terrorism, there would be no anti-terrorism branch within our security services, a great many of whom were quickly on the scene at Westminster on Wednesday, unsurprisingly too late to be of any use.
Just how does one explain to the families of those murdered by an Islamist-inspired nutter on Wednesday or to the family of Jo Cox MP, brutally slain last year by another kind of nutter, that it's ok - the outrage was a failure so nothing to worry about? Let's all just carry on regardless. There can be no doubt that Wednesday's shocking events will not be the last act of terrorism on British soil and that will continue as long as the UK and its friends treat other human beings so badly that they feel there is no point in living in this world. Selective foreign aid for some while only missiles, bombs and bullets for others is a strange kind of foreign policy.
Tom
