West's Policies Must Change

Eric Margolis writes a wonderful piece after the London bombings. Our leaders:

Terrorism is caused by evil Muslims who hate the west because of its values, religion, freedoms and selfless efforts to bring the light of democracy and civilization to the benighted Islamic world.
They insist attacks by Muslims have nothing whatsoever to do with the west's military actions in the Muslim world, its efforts to control or plunder oil, or the corrupt, despotic regimes installed there by the U.S., Britain and France.

Easy to just shine light on the effect and not the cause. Too easy and stupid - putting a bandaid just doesn't help an artery that is severed.

Eric said it best when he writes:

Murdering civilians in London, New York or Tel Aviv is a heinous crime. But to many people around the globe, so was the trumped-up invasion of Iraq that violated every norm of international law, the ongoing U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, and the agony of Palestine. Deporting or jailing loudmouth radical Muslim clerics and closing madrassas won't stop the dangerous jihadist movement. Neither will blaming Islam or Pakistan. Terrorist violence is the effect, not the cause.
The west must crack down on home-grown extremists, but it also needs to change its inflammatory, counter-productive policies in the Muslim world.

We must look for long term solutions, solutions that deal with the underlying issues, solutions which treat everyone humanely, solutions based on reality.