Terrible, tragic news from yesterday after monstrous killing of 84 innocent people on Bastille day a symbol of freedom and liberty in what was an undeniable act of terrorism. This latest retaliatory, reactionary manifestation of hate in Nice coming eight months after the Islamist militant shootings and suicide bombings in Paris that killed 130 people.
Each atrocity has been used to expand police and intelligence powers. Following the Paris attacks, the Hollande government instituted an unprecedented “state of emergency,” providing authorities with the power to ban demonstrations and detain suspects without charge. Over recent months, millions of French workers and students have defied the laws, engaging in mass demonstrations and strikes against the Socialist Party’s regressive labour legislation.
The latest attack comes amid mounting social tensions and escalating French participation in US-led military operations in the Middle East, like the US, the French government has actively backed Islamist groups in a bid to topple the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad.However, Washington viewed Islamic State’s advance into Iraq during 2014 as a threat to the US-backed government and its dominance of Iraqi oil and resources. The US and its allies, including France, have waged an air war on the Islamic State, while continuing to back other Islamist forces within Syria.
The French government immediately announces an extension on the clampdown on civil liberties and further military action in Syria and Iraq. Francois Hollande gave no explanation as to how these might prevent a further atrocity. Because he has no evidence that they will. On the contrary.
Moreover, although it is not known at this time whether the attacker was aided in any way by a group based in Iraq or Syria, Hollande has already vowed to employ yet more violence in those devastated countries. Again we are watching a Western leader adopt the same failed policies of the past while expecting those policies to yield different results. This is the definition of insanity.
Clearly religiously driven terrorism is a phenomenon that our ideals of democracy, openness and free trade find it difficult to come to grips with short of resorting to elements of the police state. But if we allow the horrendous acts of a few to fundamentally change our society for the worse then the terrorists will have achieved one of their principal goals - so clamping down on hysterical demands to either 'hit back' or 'shut our borders' must be seen for what they are: expressions of panic and grief. These must be resisted, and those who express them need to be given time to engage their brains. Only by firmly carrying on with our way of life and working to counter the bigoted mindsets can we prevail. It will never be an easy task. Our Governments attempts to try and neutralise the threat is going to be a difficult one, but they must try to do so without curtailing civil liberties too much or allowing the public to become fundamentally divided. Otherwise those who carry out these attacks in the name of whatever twisted ideology have won and the swamp that terrorism breeds in will grow..
I cannot help feeling great sadness for the world that we live in right now and feel lucky that I am not in the wrong place at the wrong time.
In the meantime we must continue to stand together in this difficult time and show our solidarity with the victims and their families and all those innocents who fell victimised by several decades of US led, UK, NATO illegal, immoral invasions, occupation, mass destruction, unwinnable wars part of the military industrial complex for corporate profit alone, combined with, western aggression in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, etc where the seeds of this awful nightmare have been sown. We must not lose our shared humanity
Despite Isis having claimed the attack, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told RTL radio Bouhlel may have been motivated by IS messages but not necessarily coordinating with a larger network.
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