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Saving the Other

The following is a drivel by me, nothing of it gets closer to an analysis aimed at radical readers or intelligent people.
"The coalition task force fighting IS in Iraq and Syria reported on 26 September that it had conducted 34,573 air strikes between August 2014 and August 2019, and that at least 1,335 civilians had been unintentionally killed.
But Airwars believes between 8,214 and 13,125 non-combatants are likely to have been killed as a result of coalition actions over the same period."
But "the price is worth it." "Collateral damage" is inevitable and necessary. Saving coalition forces' lives is crucial. We are helping you to destroy evil, so you must make some sacrifices. I am sure those who lost their loved ones will understand the situation and the difficulty that faces pilots. We will give them some money. 
What about if some of them go and join the "jihadist" groups out of anger and frustration? We strike them... After 9/11 and the London bombing, the official line was it was imperative we went "there" and fought them "there" so "they" could not come here and bomb us again. 

But they came and killed our loved ones in France and England and other places.


Well, I guess because there is something wrong with "Islam"; something ideological that drives them to hate "our values."
But the Arab uprisings of 2011 and the recent and ongoing revolts in Sudan, Algeria, Lebanon and Iraq show otherwise. That it is not a religious issue at all. 

Yes, but look at Syria, Libya and Yemen and how they are killing each other over there for almost a decade now. Just look at Libya and how our NATO tried to help them and save lives.
And if we didn't do it, imagine how many lives would have been taken by ISIS. Just look how we have destroyed the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, or the "insurgents in Iraq."

And when those people terrorised by ISIS, Taliban, A-Asad, Saudi-UAE air raids... flee their homes and seek refuge in Europe they are "sheltered" in detention centers and treated as aliens who are incompatible with "our culture". 


Because we cannot afford having all of them and because a siginificant number of our population do not accept more foreigners, especially Muslims. It is a hard choice. We cannot upset our people and strengthen the far-right.


But over the last few decades all the talk was about a "prosperous" and "tolerant" Europe, a Europe of "liberal values", "human rights", "aid", and even "helping the Other develop".


And we are still doing that, but we have to do it differently today. We have new challenges like climate change and economic stagnation facing us. Also, we should not dismiss the intricacies of geopolitics in a region like the Midle East and North Africa...


........


The circle has not finished. More is yet to come.

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