[Northern Monkey]

Originally Posted by MTVN

If our foreign policy is to blame then why has Germany also been targeted numerous times? They are a country that has not carried out bombings on Muslim countries and they have done more than any other European nation to help with the victims of wars in the Middle East. Yet still they are attacked. It's the same story with Sweden.

They - and we - are attacked not because of what we do but because of who we are. Because Islamist extremists are by their very ideology totally opposed to the whole structure, culture, demography and identity of the West. That would be the case whether we pursued an interventionist foreign policy or an isolationist one. The whole argument that we have brought this upon ourselves is ridiculously reductionist.

Bingo!
This century's Islamic troubles began on 9/11 in Newyork.What was the reason for that?Should the US and their allies have done nothing after that?
Doing nothing would not have stopped Islamic terrorism.It was already happening and doing nothing would have been a green light for terrorists to do whatever they want.
Now i do agree that Iraq was a mistake and likely helped transform Al Qaeda and other terrorist cells into ISIS however without ISIS there would still be mad Muslims killing us under a different banner.Doing nothing is not the answer.
It has to be a multilateral approach combining ideological,military,intelligence and national security.