[Cyclefrance]

Cannot claim to have read every comment/view that went before, but have some obesrvations.

Terrorism is international because we make it appropriate for it to be that way - Israeli support/bias, Iraq regime change being prime culprits. Give a man a good enough reason (stimulus) to react and he will - the harsher the reason the stronger the reaction. That applies both ways. From the 'terrorist' angle, take foreign interference out of the equation and how long would international 'terrorist' reaction be justified, or better still supported? Sure there would always be regional 'terrorist' reaction to regional issues - Irish with UK, Basque with Spain, and so on - but the reason to take a local issue to another country would evaporate - to maintain the support needs ongoing 'in-the-face' reason (stimulus). Think of the product life cycle of anything and you will appreciate that interest will only be sustained in any product/situation so long as there is sufficient stimulus to do so. Remove this and over time the original reason will be surpassed by a more attractive/novel/original cause to support. Hence the fact that we cannot tar everything that happens with a common brush but must acknowledge and accept that there are specific factions that rise and then fall in popularity. Saddam doesn’t = terrorism, doesn’t = international threat, but take away Saddam and you create the vacuum that terrorism can fill where there is a deluded and wanting public. Add the international element that evicted Saddam and is seen as supporting Israel over Palestine, and mix that with a faction of terrorism that acts against international interference and you have the volatile recipe that has fuelled the current well-baked cake of disruption.

A key question then is: have we gone too far to achieve a return to local/regional reaction? The deeper you are entrenched the harder it is to extract yourself and it will be brave international leaders that have the courage and foresight to find the means and support to withdraw on an international level and overcome the short-term economic and strategic risks and consequences that such action precipitates.

Clearly the current aggressive approach is not working and serves only to escalate the crisis. Poverty has a link to the extent that it causes the local population to share an identity of common cause when there is nothing else to give them hope of changing their status - and of course they have time and will enough to follow the leaders that court their attention. The poor need one or both of: freedom from poverty and/or reason to support another doctrine.

Time now therefore to put effort, not into aggression, but to achieving the withdrawal of support for 'terrorist' reaction on an international scale while preserving the status quo in economic stability. Achieve that and international threats will reduce to local issues can be dealt with – byte sized pieces that can be attended to with the appropriate level of action and remedy locally, without requiring an international presence. A difficult objective but is there really any other way…?