Why there are terror groups

6 April 2007

JI remains strong ("JI still confounding terror experts, despite arrests", 6/4) for the same reasons that al Queda has - according to the latest US intelligence - grown a whole new generation of leaders: Western armies remain on Muslim soil; the US abducts, jails and tortures Muslims; the West has done nothing to advance the cause of the Palestinians, and transparently favours Israel in that two-generation-long standoff; President Bush threatens Iran over nuclear power, but allows Israel and India to develop actual nuclear weapons... And so on, and on.

In the context of such Western lopsidedness, I would be shocked if there were not a burgeoning of terror groups.

Were the West to cease these activities, Islamic rage against it would likely dissipate in time, and 'terrorism' would revert to occasional, containable acts - a la the 1970s. The security of millions of Western citizens could be restored; our economies would benefit; and we would once again be treated with some respect.

I've given up appealing to our leaders' morality. Here's hoping self-interest gets someone's attention.

John Macgregor

Krabi, Thailand