Every time there’s a terrorist attack in a Western city, people like me start reminding everyone of all the brutal (and ongoing) attacks Western governments have waged on the countries the terrorists come from. We’re predictable that way. And maybe it gets old. Maybe it even seems petty to be pointing out hypocrisy at a time like this.

But the hypocrisy is not the point. The point is that all around us, people are responding just as predictably, with their immediate, reflexive, emotional appeals: Either to “come together and heal”, and “just get along”, or “throw out all the Muslims!” The two world views smash against each other over and over again and create the impression that the question of how to stop terrorism will be resolved by adopting the correct attitude towards Islam and Muslim immigrants.

Yet all the compassionate hand-wringing, and all the racist bellowing in the world will not solve the problem of terrorism because none of it addresses what is at its root. Those on both sides of the reflexive left-right spectrum resist digging at its roots. Like cats scrambling to avoid a bath, they grasp at whatever platitudes serve their world view, and absolutely refuse to consider that perhaps it is not just a matter of “good people” vs. “bad people”, or society as a whole not being “enlightened” enough. Perhaps it has something to do with a long history of violent intervention by Western governments who became accustomed to not suffering any consequences for their actions.

That this is even controversial to anyone is bizarre. The connection between military intervention and terrorism is well established, most notably in the 2006 study by Robert A. Pape. Pape compiled a database of every suicide terrorist attack in the world, beginning in 1980. He found that:



“The data show that there is little connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, or any one of the world’s religions…

“Rather, what nearly all suicide terrorist attacks have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland. Religion is rarely the root cause, although it is often used as a tool by terrorist organizations in recruiting and in other efforts in service of the broader strategic objective.”



And yet the debate still rages. Most mind boggling to witness is the blind rage of those who blame “Islam” and want to deport all Muslims, who they blame for the attacks – yet cannot fathom that people in countries brutalized by Western governments might be capable of feeling (and acting on) that same rage.

As long as enough people cling to their beloved nation states, then we will continue to see more of the same: Unrestrained, violent, military adventurism on the part of powerful states, and the much smaller, but every bit as brutal, violent responses of those lashing out against them in whatever ways they can. And what neither left nor right wants to acknowledge is this: When society allows for an institution to hold a monopoly on violence, on justice and its enforcement, it unleashes a monster into the world. We can pretend that “we” control that monster, either through Constitutional restraints or through the magic of Democracy. We can even pretend that the monster represents our interests and not its own. But the reality is that none of that is true.

The attachment that so many adults have to the nation states they happen to live under is hard to explain. But it is deadly, and this is nowhere more apparent than in war and the violence that ongoing war perpetuates. If you’re not willing to confront the evils of the state – including the specific state you happen to live under – then expect to see more of the same for a very long time. No well-intentioned pleas for compassion, changing your FaceBook status, or deporting all the Muslims from your country is going to change that.