THE WEST MUST CONFRONT ITS WRONGS

Letter in The Age, 24 MARCH 2016

 

The West must confront its wrongs

 

After every attack on the West (note: not those in Turkey), our so-called leaders state the mantra, "they will not make us live in fear, we will carry on with our lives" etc. The people who commit these terrorist acts are immediately vilified, correctly, but with little discussion of cause and effect. The manifest lie that intelligence agencies and police have any way to prevent these atrocities needs to be ridiculed. Historically, there is no evidence to suggest terrorism committed by individuals can be stopped by monitoring. The root of the issue lies in the British and French destruction of the Ottoman Empire and the ongoing wars and support of dictators in the region, predominantly over oil, that have occurred since. Ongoing hegemony that has fuelled our economies at the expense of others. But strangely no one wants to talk about it, so instead of a robust discussion on where the West has gone wrong and what can be done to fix it, the West presents itself as an immaculate victim of Arab/Muslim ignorance. Without our friends the Saudis, Islamic State wouldn't financially exist. As long as we continue the "we have done nothing wrong" or "they're just fanatics" dialogue we are doomed to allow these dreadful people to increase in number.

Gerard Grant, Knoxfield