Tariq Ali: West's Wars Are Root Cause of Brussels, Paris Terror

The root cause of terror attacks in Europe including the recent attacks in Brussels are Western-led wars in the Middle East, public intellectual and author Tariq Ali said during teleSUR’s “Global Empire” program.

“The basic problem is the wars that are going on in the Middle East and Afghanistan and part of Pakistan,” Ali said Wednesday. “Every time an atrocity takes place the overwhelming response is not to look for the roots and not looking for the roots of the violence means that you are actually waiting for it to happen again.”

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The renowned intellectual argued that the United States and European nations claim they are unaware of what extremist groups want. However, such groups and others less extreme have been demanding Western nation's stop intervening in the Middle East for decades, Ali added.

“Short terms solutions to deal with extremists groups are not working such as wars, major security policies and interventions,” Ali argued, adding that such policies only give rise to extremist groups and rebellions that are now expanding and becoming more sophisticated.

“In the case of the Islamic State group, we know full well that this organization came into existence after the war in Iraq. Even Obama admitted it as he said that if the U.S. had not gone to Iraq the extremist group would not have come into existence.”

However, Washington and its allies in Europe are well aware of what the real reasons behind the recent spate of terror attacks in Europe are, Ali argued.

“The roots of hostility are political; this is not a war of civilizations; this is not a war of European Islam versus European Christianity,” the author added.  

“This is effectively a political struggle being waged by extreme means in order to stop the assaults by the western world on the Middle East.”

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Along with ending wars and interventions in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ali said part of the solution would include “integrating the most deprived populations in Europe, who most of the time happen to be Muslims” into the social and political system, adopting policies that challenge poverty and suffering caused by neoliberalism in the West that is based on profit and profit alone. 

“What these terror attacks reveal is that you can no longer fight a war thousands of miles away and expect no retribution. The retribution is awful but it is nothing compared to what has happened in the Middle East,” Ali warned.