Quote of the Day

Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services, have pointed to the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other countries, such as Libya, and terrorism here at home.

That assessment in no way reduces the guilt of those who attack our children. Those terrorists will forever be reviled and implacably held to account for their actions.

But an informed understanding of the causes of terrorism is an essential part of an effective response that will protect the security of our people, that fights rather than fuels terrorism.

Protecting this country requires us to be both strong against terrorism and strong against the causes of terrorism. The blame is with the terrorists, but if we are to protect our people we must be honest about what threatens our security.

Those causes certainly cannot be reduced to foreign policy decisions alone. Over the past fifteen years or so, a sub-culture of often suicidal violence has developed amongst a tiny minority of, mainly young, men, falsely drawing authority from Islamic beliefs and often nurtured in a prison system in urgent need of resources and reform. And no rationale based on the actions of any government can remotely excuse, or even adequately explain, outrages like this week’s massacre. But we must be brave enough to admit the war on terror is simply not working. We need a smarter way to reduce the threat from countries that nurture terrorists and generate terrorism.

– Jeremy Corbyn
Excerpted from "We Must Be Brave Enough to Admit
the War on Terror Simply Not Working"
Common Dreams
May 26, 2017

Related Off-site Links:
Corbyn Is Right: Of Course Manchester Bombing Was Linked to British Foreign Policy – Simon Jenkins (The Guardian, May 26, 2017).
The Manchester Bombing is Blowback from the West’s Disastrous Interventions and Covert Proxy Wars – Max Blumenthal (AlterNet via Salon, May 27, 2017).
Jeremy Corbyn Praised for Denouncing Failed "Global War on Terror" – Andrea Germanos (Common Dreams, May 26, 2017).

UPDATES: Jeremy Corbyn Was Right in 2003, and He Is Right Again Today – Andrew Mitrovica (Al-Jazeera via Common Dreams, June 4, 2017).
This Is How to End Islamic State Terror – and Stop British Foreign Policy Blowback – Nafeez Ahmed (Middle East Eye via Common Dreams, June 7, 2017).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Remembering September 11 and Its Aftermath
• A Letter to "Dear Abby" re. Responding to 9/11
• In the Wake of the Paris Attacks, Saying 'No' to War, Racism and Islamophobia
• Saying "No" to Endless U.S. Wars
• The War Racket
• Vigiling Against Weaponized Drones
• Quote of the Day – September 7, 2015
• Chalmers Johnson, 1931-2010
• The Tenth Anniversary of the U.S. Invasion of Iraq