SAR #15320

Poverty, marginalization, inequality, discrimination, and repression are the swamps in which terrorism grows and flourishes.

Hammer/Nails: The French are dispatching their only aircraft carrier to the Eastern Mediterranean and their warplanes are launching repeated strikes against ISIS in Syria. In essence they are making the same mistake that George Bush led the US into after 9/11. Some claim that the Paris attacks have opened a new stage in the conflict between Western civilization and the Islamic State, one of “war by terror” as though drone strikes and cruise missiles were not acts of terror and that the long bungling history of US adventurism in the Middle East were not key to today's violence.

Knee And Other Jerks: Ben Carson says he would ban all Syrian refugees because he has “big frontal lobes” and they don't. Jeb would have a religious test and allow only Christians to attain refugee status. Some other Republican candidates have blamed the Democrats in general and Obama specifically.

Violent Religion: We are not supposed to acknowledge this, but man is a bloodthirsty savage. Most of the time, when there is enough to go around without too much suffering and privation, the gloss of civilization restrains most of us from doing direct violence – although the depredations of free market capitalism walk very close to the line. But we were violent far long before we were pacifically religious and more often than not our religions have a violent undercurrent, a violent history, and very violent and bloody foundation myths. We've gone from scapegoating an individual to demonising an entire religious tradition. This is not progress. It ignores actual causes and promises only more violence on both sides.