Caroline Lucas Green MP Resigns from Stop the War Coalition

An Act of Surrender to Media and Tory/New Labour Pressure

In happier days

Caroline Lucas, the only Green MP, has bowed to intense media and Tory/New Labour pressure and resigned as a patron of Stop the War Coalition.   Her purported reasons include 2 articles on the StWC website, which were subsequently taken down and the apparent refusal to allow pro-war Syrians to speak at a meeting at the House of Commons.

Caroline Lucas speaking in parliament

StWC was set up by the Socialist Workers Party and is now, effectively controlled by the Counterfire group (which was expelled from the SWP or resigned – Linday German and John Rees) and supporters of the Communist Party of Britain such as Andrew Murray.

I have a number of political differences with StWC, not least over their crass refusal to allow Hands Off the People of Iran, an anti-imperialist group, to affiliate to them.  Coupled with their tacit support for the Iranian regime and their failure to give any solidarity with the oppressed of Iran.  No doubt much the same method is true with respect to Syria.  But Caroline Lucas has always been a member/patron regardless of this, including being its Vice-President.

racist German Greens

StWC is an anti-war group above all.  It is there to oppose western and in particular British involvement in the war in Syria and the pretext of bombing Isis, which is really about the reconfiguring of Syria in the West’s image, i.e. a confessional fragmentation of Syria.  It is this which accounts for the failure to speak out about Russia’s bombing.  Russia’s actions in defence of the Assad regime, are aimed at keeping Syria united.  Britain, France and the USA are happy to see a fragmented Syria to accompany a de facto fragmented Iraq.

Beck prefers to defend paedophiles than Palestinians

What is particularly shameful about Caroline Lucas’s actions is that StWC has been coming under severe criticism in recent months because its previous Chair, Jeremy Corbyn, has become leader of the Labour Party.  Nonentities like Tristram Hunt MP have called on Jeremy not to attend its fundraising dinner.

Stop the War Coalition Have Refused to Criticise the Iranian Regime Which is Executing Up to 1,000 prisoners this year - Caroline has always remained silent over this

The excuses Caroline has given for resigning as patron and thereby dissociating herself from the organisation were an article saying that the West and France were reaping in Paris what they had sown with their bloody wars in Syria.  Seems reasonable to me.

Another article comparing Isis to those who fought with the Spanish republicans was crass and has fortunately been taken down.  Neither are resigning matters though.

Mistakes such as these are no reason for Caroline’s act of cowardice.  It  echoes what Die Grunen the German Green Party has done.  They first presided over the use of German troops in a war, the first time ever since WW2, in Afghanistan.   And today they are the most Zionist party of all in the German Bundestag.  See Germany’s Racist Green MP Volker Beck Calls for theRepression of Palestinian supporters

In Germany Beck called on the German state to investigate supporters of BDS for ‘anti-Semitism’.  To their credit, Angela Merkl’s admiinstration refused.

Volker Beck - Die Grunen's racist Zionist member of parliament

The Greens are a petit-bourgeois party.  They are not, contrary to many people’s belief socialist.  They don’t oppose capitalism or the market economy.  Rather they believe capitalism can be tamed and ‘greened’.  A nicer capitalism.   A less exploitative capitalism forgetting that if capitalism isn’t exploitative it isn’t capitalism!

It is no surprise therefore that the Greens, who are really Green Liberals, buckle under pressure and that Caroline has dissociated herself from StWC.  We saw exactly the same thing under the Green administration in Brighton & Hove.  Despite having the best policy of any party on Palestine, when Palestine Solidarity Campaign called on the Green Party to twin Brighton & Hove with a Palestinian city they ran a mile.  That is the price of running a small part of the capitalist state.

As the Tory Guido Fawkes site said, this is a ‘Body blow for STW, which will now up the pressure on Corbyn to distance himself too…’  

Tony Greenstein 

Press Statement from Caroline Lucas

Caroline and the Stop the War Coalition

"I listened carefully to the Prime Minister make his case for why the UK should join the bombing campaign against Isis. The debate in the House of Commons was thorough, and the horror and revulsion at recent atrocities in Syria, Paris, Beirut and elsewhere is shared by MPs from across the political divide.

"Yet I have still to see any evidence to suggest that UK bombing Isis targets in Syria is likely to increase our security here in Britain or help bring about a lasting peace in the region in question - to the contrary, the evidence appears to suggest it would make matters worse."

A spokesperson for Caroline Lucas MP said:

“Caroline stepped back from the Stop the War Coalition a few weeks ago. Her busy parliamentary and constituency schedule means that she doesn’t have time to fully engage with the role of a Patron and, in light of some recent StWC positions that she didn’t support, she felt standing down was the responsible thing to do. Like the Stop the War Coalition, Caroline is opposed to British bombing in Syria because it will neither keep Britain safe nor help bring about a lasting peace in Syria.”

The Spokesperson went on to say:

“Caroline was specifically troubled by some Stop the War Coalition statements after the Paris atrocities. Though the pieces were subsequently taken down she felt unable to associate herself with them.  

“She was also concerned that some Syrian voices were not given an opportunity to speak at a recent meeting organised by the StWC in Parliament.

“StWC has played an important role in building the anti-war movement in Britain, and Caroline will continue to work in support of peace.”

Below is one of the 2 articles that led Caroline Lucas to resign.  It seems a perfectly good and incisive article to me.  I can’t imagine why StWC panicked and took it off its site.

Age of Despair: Reaping the Whirlwind of Western Support for Extremist Violence

Chris Floyd

Published: 14 November 2015

We, the West, overthrew Saddam by violence. We overthrew Gadafy by violence. We are trying to overthrow Assad by violence. Harsh regimes all — but far less draconian than our Saudi allies, and other tyrannies around the world. What has been the result of these interventions? A hell on earth, one that grows wider and more virulent year after year.

Without the American crime of aggressive war against Iraq — which, by the measurements used by Western governments themselves, left more than a million innocent people dead — there would be no ISIS, no “Al Qaeda in Iraq.” Without the Saudi and Western funding and arming of an amalgam of extremist Sunni groups across the Middle East, used as proxies to strike at Iran and its allies, there would be no ISIS. Let’s go back further. Without the direct, extensive and deliberate creation by the United States and its Saudi ally of a world-wide movement of armed Sunni extremists during the Carter and Reagan administrations (in order to draw the Soviets into a quagmire in Afghanistan), there would have been no “War on Terror” — and no terrorist attacks in Paris tonight.

Again, let’s be as clear as possible: the hellish world we live in today is the result of deliberate policies and actions undertaken by the United States and its allies over the past decades. It was Washington that led and/or supported the quashing of secular political resistance across the Middle East, in order to bring recalcitrant leaders like Nasser to heel and to back corrupt and brutal dictators who would advance the US agenda of political domination and resource exploitation.

The open history of the last half-century is very clear in this regard. Going all the way back to the overthrow of the democratic government of Iran in 1953, the United States has deliberately and consciously pushed the most extreme sectarian groups in order to undermine a broader-based secular resistance to its domination agenda.

Why bring up this “ancient history” when fresh blood is running in the streets of Paris? Because that blood would not be running if not for this ancient history; and because the reaction to this latest reverberation of Washington’s decades-long, bipartisan cultivation of religious extremism will certainly be more bloodshed, more repression and more violent intervention. Which will, in turn, inevitably, produce yet more atrocities and upheaval as we are seeing in Paris tonight.

I write in despair. Despair of course at the depravity displayed by the murderers of innocents in Paris tonight; but an even deeper despair at the depravity of the egregious murderers who have brought us to this ghastly place in human history: those gilded figures who have strode the halls of power for decades in the high chambers of the West, killing innocent people by the hundreds of thousands, crushing secular opposition to their favored dictators — and again, again and again — supporting, funding and arming some of the most virulent sectarians on earth.

And one further cause of despair: that although this historical record is there in the open, readily available from the most mainstream sources, it is and will continue to be completely ignored, both by the power-gamers and by the public. The latter will continue to support the former as they replicate and regurgitate the same old policies of intervention, the same old agendas of domination and greed, over and over and over again — creating ever-more fresh hells for us all to live in, and poisoning the lives of our children, and of all those who come after us.

Racists, Fascists & Zionists Seek to Exploit the Paris Massacres

An excellent column from one of the very few excellent Israeli columnists,  Gideon Levy, who is unsurprisingly a target of the Israeli far-Right.

people-hold-hands Bataclan

His message is a simple one.  There is no connection, as the Zionists are trying to make between the bloody murder in Paris by the barbarians of Isis and the children who wield knives in Hebron or Jerusalem because they see no other way of gaining their freedom.  The Paris murderers are fighting against any concept of freedom, as we are seeing with the mass graves being uncovered in Sinjar city.  Palestinian youth are fighting in the only way they know, to achieve freedom from the Israeli military state that dominates and rules over their lives.

Israel exploits the Paris massacre  -  Tel Aviv city hall lit up in French colours

Candles placed outside the Carillon cafe

Gideon Levy also lays into the idea that you can draw an equals sign between Hamas, Hezbollah, Isis and Al Qaeda.  Apart from the small fact that Hezbollah is a Shi’ite group, Hamas is fighting a national resistance campaign.  Yes they are all Islamic organisations but that is where the comparison ends.  For example both Hezbollah and Hamas condemned the Charlie Hebdo killings whereas al-Qaeda in Yemen, with whom Saudi Arabia is presently aligned, carried them out.

Fans stream out of football stadium where Germany-France were playing

The far Right and the Zionists will make common cause over the Paris bombings.  It’s all the fault of the Muslims.  Their recipe will be to wage war on Muslims throughout Europe.  There is nothing that Israel would love more than to export its war on the Palestinians to Europe even if it makes common cause with Europe’s fascists.

Tony Greenstein

Before the Israeli Right Rejoices Over Paris

The Israeli right will say: We told you so. That is how the Palestinians are, that is how the Muslims are - bloodthirsty animals. The conclusion: There is no partner. This is of course a propagandist house of cards.

Ha’aretz Gideon Levy Nov 15, 2015 2:50 AM

Just before the right in Israel begins to celebrate, we must tell them: There is no connection whatsoever between the child with a knife from Hebron and the French Muslim with a suicide bomb in Paris.

Palestinian demonstration in Paris - pro-Palestinian activity is heavily suppressed by French state

Just before the right in France and all of Europe starts to celebrate, we must tell them: Don’t you dance on the blood as well. The nationalism, hatred of foreigners, racism, deportation of refugees, isolationism and the war against Islam — your magic solutions will not solve anything. The rejoicing calls of “we told you so” from Israel and the European right are already being sounded loudly.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Marine Le Pen are once again those who are profiting the most from the terror. We must not fall into their trap.

The Israeli right will say: We told you so. That is how the Palestinians are, that is how the Arabs are, and that is how the Muslims are - bloodthirsty animals. The conclusion: There is no partner. We will forever live by our swords. Now Europe is experiencing what we have been experiencing for years. Now Europe will take steps toward a war on terror — the same steps which it condemned when we took them. Now Europe may leave us alone; after all we have a common enemy. Let’s see them labeling products now, let’s see it condemning the settlements.

Israelis exploit the French massacre

Our daring raids on the al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron and the primary school in Silwan in Jerusalem are part of the war of civilizations which West is fighting, and which Israel is so proud to belong to. Whoever does not invade al-Ahli is not fighting terror. Whoever does not shoot a young woman holding a knife at a checkpoint gets Paris. The law for Ahmed Manasra (the 13-year-old Palestinian boy who stabbed an Israeli boy) is the same law as that for Jihadi John. Hamas is the Islamic State organization and the same goes for Hezbollah, Mahmoud Abbas, (Islamic Movement leader)Sheikh Ra’ad Salah, Joint List Members of Knesset Ayman Odeh and Ahmad Tibi —and all of them are ISIS, all the Arabs.

This is of course a propagandist house of cards, which is completely unrelated to reality. The goal of the knife wielder from Hebron is completely different from that of the jihadist from Stade de France, and so is their worldview. Here the Palestinian is battling for his land and country, for his liberation from occupation, for self-determination and freedom — and there the game is destroying Europe and taking control of it. Here the main motive is national and political, and there it is religious fundamentalism.

Palestinian demonstration in Paris

But the truth is that the Israeli right is not completely wrong. In the end, its prophesy will be self-fulfilling. If Israel continues with its policies, the child stabber from Hebron will turn into the adult suicide bomber of ISIS. Already today he is looking with eager eyes at the success of his big brothers. His despair leaves him little other hope.

ISIS is still not here yet, but it is possible to count on Netanyahu and his ilk to bring them here. The occupation has already given birth to Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. A desperate West Bank and an imprisoned Gaza Strip are the appropriate fertile grounds for growing them. The storm troopers of the occupation and the assassins in the hospitals provide the particle accelerators for ushering in jihadists.

The European right is wrong too. After all, the tens of thousands of the Muslim refugees knocking on the gates of Europe are trying to flee for their lives, escaping the very terror of the jihadists who are now attacking Europe. They are fleeing from the people who earlier destroyed their homelands and are now perpetrating a massacre in the Bataclan Theater. Closing the doors in their faces, inflaming the hatred of foreigners in Europe, along with the continued Islamophobia and the rise of the extreme right, will only play into the hands of ISIS.

There are now quite a few Israelis who are rejoicing in their hearts (or on the social networks) in light of the events in Paris. In addition to the perverseness of rejoicing over the death of other human beings, this is also a celebration of the blind. The correct lesson from what happened in Paris is that there are no longer any local wars. The world cannot continue to shut its eyes in the face of what is happening in Syria, and also not in the face of the Israeli occupation. When the world pulls itself together from the shock, maybe it will also free itself from the paralysis and understand that it must harness itself to find a solution to these conflicts, both in war­­­­­­­­-torn Syria as well as in the occupied Palestinian territories. Then let's see the Israeli right.

Gideon Levy

Haaretz Correspondent

Terror Attacks in Paris – As The West Sows So Shall It Reap

The bombings and shootings in Paris last night should be condemned unreservedly.  There isn’t a shred of justification for the murder of over 120 innocent people by the fascists of ISIS. 

However, as the article from New Matilda in Australia makes clear, our grief should not be selective.  47 people died in twin suicide bombings in Beirut this week and there was no outpouring of grief.  Likewise over 100 people died in Ankara last month at a Kurdish peace rally.  Again there was little reaction.

Two  explosions outside football match

The first two bombings were carried out by ISIS, the latter bombing was very likely to have been carried out by the Turkish state which had deliberately been operating a strategy of tension in order to secure a victory for Erdogan’s AKP in the general election last weekend.

Demonstration in Turkish Kurdish areas against the Ankara bombings are tear gassed

But it goes further than that.  The West has condoned, if not supported, the maintenance of a rear base in Turkey by Isis.  The Turkish state, for whom the Kurdish PKK and PYD are the main enemy, has deliberately supported Isis, allowed its fighters and supporters to cross the border, allowed its trade in oil and other materials from Turkey to Syria whilst doing its best to prevent support for the Kurds in Syria to reach its intended target.

The aftermath of the Ankara bombing by the Turkish state and ISIS

NATO has specifically supported the Turkish attack on the Kurds, even though the Kurds are the only effective ground fighters against Isis, as even the United States has had to accept.  Even worse, the USA has supported, via its Saudi and Gulf clients, the supply of weaponry to a variety of Jihadist groups in Lebanon, including the al-Qaeda group Al Nusra and similar groups.

Erdogan's Ankara bombings

Our own BBC is, not unnaturally, party to this cover-up.  In How the BBC Erased All Trace of Saudi Support for Al Qaeda in Syria  I cited Glenn Greenwald as showing that the Saudi claim that it was not supplying al-Nusra (al Qaeda) but only Jaish al-Fatah (Army of Conquest) was a complete lie since al-Nusra is the main component of the Army of Conquest.  When this was  pointed out to the BBC, since it is common knowledge,  (even The Telegraph, in an early October article complaining that Russia was bombing “non-ISIL rebels,” noted that the Army of Conquest “includes a number of Islamist groups, most powerful among them Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra” and even the CIA station Voice of America noted that “Russia’s main target has been the Army of Conquest, an alliance of insurgent groups that includes the al-Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria, and the hard-line Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham, as well as some less extreme Islamist groups.”

trio embrace after Bataclan concert hall bombing in Paris

What did the BBC do?  It simply edited out all mention of The Army of Conquest  Gulf Arabs 'stepping up' arms supplies to Syrian rebels  stating that ‘The well-placed official, who asked not to be named, said (that) … those groups being supplied did not include either Islamic State (IS) or al-Nusra Front, both of which are proscribed terrorist organisations. Instead, he said the weapons would go to the Free Syrian Army and other small rebel groups.’  If you look at the small correction at the bottom of the article it says ‘Correction 23 October 2015: A reference in an earlier version of this story had wrongly indicated Jaish al-Fatah did not include the Nusra Front and has been amended.’  However this would be meaningless, since there is no other reference to Jaish al-Fatah in the article.

Beirut bombing

Isis did not come out of nowhere.  It was formerly Al Qaeda in Iraq.   It is the nakedly sectarian stance of the US imposed Maliki government in Iraq which drove Sunni Iraqis into its hands.  Supplied by the Saudis, whose Wahhabism is similar to it, and staffed by senior military ex-Baathists, Isis has grown in strength in Iraq over the last year, despite US bombings, having taken Ramadi and Fallujah following their capture of Iraq’s second city, Mosul.  The only force that has been able to successfully fight them is the Kurdish Peshmerga. 

Aftermath of Ankara bombings

The only victory for the Iraq forces is in Tiqrit, Saddam Hussein’s old town.  However its former Sunni inhabitants are too afraid to return because of the reputation of the Shi’ite militia who captured it. Isis in Iraq: Why Tikrit remains a ghost town two months after its liberation from militant fighters 

Beirut bombing

It is the West’s ‘peace keeping’ starting with the invasion of Iraq that caused the situation whereby  Isis have grown in strength and now been able to mount a co-ordinated attack in the heart of  Paris.  Those who, like Britain’s moronic Defence Minister, Michael Fallon, believe it is 'Morally indefensible' not to bomb IS in Syria’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34742361 need their heads examined. 

Police clash with protestors over Ankara bombing 

The West has been complicit in supporting the ‘moderate’ Islamists of al-Qaeda and Ahrar al-Sham in Syria.   That is why the ‘moderates’ of the Free Syrian Army were resurrected when Russia started bombing the Jihadists.  Regardless of whether one supports Russia’s intervention, the fact is that Russia has had more success in one month than the US has had in over a year of bombing, breaking the year long siege on Kweyris airbase near Aleppo last week.  That is what has caused the panic in the West, not least in Turkey and with Erdogan, whose plans to invade Syria and attack the Kurds have had to be shelved.

Beirut bombings

The fruit of the West’s duplicity was played out last night in Paris and in Beirut last week and in Ankara last month.

Tony Greenstein

Paris Attacks Highlight Western Vulnerability, And Our Selective Grief And Outrage

By Chris Graham on November 14, 2015 International Affairs

Beirut bombings

As France enters yet another period of mourning, Lebanon is just emerging from one. Not that you probably heard anything about it. Chris Graham reports.

The Eiffel Tower

If you didn’t know better, you could be excused for believing that the planning behind the latest terrorist attack in Paris is about more than just causing widespread death and fear in the West.

It looks like it’s also designed to highlight our selective outrage.

France Paris Shooting

Overnight, dozens of people have been confirmed dead in a series of coordinated attacks in Paris.

News sites have fired up live blogs. Serious news Channels such as Sky are providing blanket 24-hour coverage of the event, and, as with all things tragedy, media are competing with each other for scoops and gory videos.

World leaders are also out in force, condemning the attacks. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull held a press conference in Berlin a short time ago, after sending out this message of solidarity with the French people.

injured man carried by rescue workers Paris

Australians’ thoughts, prayers & resolute solidarity with people of France as they respond to brutal terrorist attacks in Paris tonight.

— Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) November 14, 2015

He was joined by his Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

We stand in solidarity with people of France in condemning horrific terrorist attacks – my press conference: https://t.co/WQI7m65ic6 — Julie Bishop (@JulieBishopMP) November 14, 2015

Labor’s Tanya Plibersek also tweeted in support.

Terrible news coming out of Paris. My thoughts are with the people of France.

— Tanya Plibersek (@tanya_plibersek) November 13, 2015

French president Francois Hollande has declared a national State of Emergency, and closed its borders.

inside football stadium

Meanwhile, in a brown part of the world, as the attacks began in Paris, Lebanon was just emerging from a National Day of Mourning, after 43 people were killed and 200 more were injured during a series of coordinated suicide bombings in Beirut.

The attacks – for which ISIS has reportedly claimed responsibility – occurred in the southern Beirut suburb of Burj al-Barajneh, a predominantly Shia community which supports the Hezbollah movement. Not counting Israel’s assaults on Lebanon, the slaughters represent the deadliest bombings in Beirut since the Lebanese civil war ended more than two decades ago.

Like suspicions around the attacks in France, the bombings in Beirut are believed to be in response to Hezbollah’s decision in recent weeks to send in troops to support efforts in northern Syria against Islamic State.

Lebanese bombings

But the bombings in Lebanon drew no tweet from Malcolm Turnbull, no social media statement from Barack Obama, no live media blogs from Western media, no wall-to-wall media coverage. And no twitter hashtags from Australians in solidarity with the Lebanese.

People crowd onto football pitch

It’s a curious state of affairs, when you consider that there are around three times as many people of Lebanese descent living in Australian, compared to French nationals.

You’d think if we were able to identify with anyone, it would be with Lebanese Australians – after all, so many of them are among the most beloved in this nation, and have contributed enormously to public life.

Marie Bashir – perhaps the most admired Australian governor in history – is the child of Lebanese immigrants. Her husband, Nick Shehadie is as well – he’s the former Lord Mayor of Sydney, and a member of the Australian Rugby Union Hall of Fame.

shooting Paris outside cafe

Queensland parliamentarian Bob Katter has Lebanese roots. Former premier of Victoria, Steve Bracks does as well. One of the most loved rugby league stars of all time is Hazem El Masri. Benny Elias’ parents come from Lebanon. So do Robbie Farah’s.

In the AFL there’s Milham Hanna and Bachar Houli, and the current coach of the Australian Wallabies, Michael Cheika, is of Lebanese descent.

site of twin suicide bombing in Burj al Barajneh, Beirut

The Lebanese contribution to Australian business has also been immense – John Symond, the founder of Aussie Home Loans has Lebanese heritage. Jacques Nasser is the former CEO of Ford Motors in Australia. Ron Bakir of Crazy Ron’s mobile phones was born in Lebanon, and migrated to Australia.

There have, of course, been many great contributions by Australians with French heritage – commentator Richie Benaud, actress Cate Blanchett, businessman Robert Champion de Crespigny, politician Greg Combet, and the iconic AFL star Ron Cazaly.

But how do we explain our identification with French suffering and our apparent indifference to Lebanese suffering? Or more to the point, how do we explain our indifference to the suffering of people we perceive as different, Lebanese, African, Hazara, Muslim…. Brown people.

The sad reality is, Australia has been here before, and just 11 months ago. A few days before the Charlie Hebdo massacre, terrorist organisation Boko Haram razed the town of Baja in Nigeria, killing more than 2,000 people.

street in Beirut where bomb went off nr market

The world’s media – and most of its politicians – were mostly silent. Last month, at least another 30 people were killed in another attack on Nigerian mosques by Boko Haram.

That followed 10 people killed in a coordinated attack near the Maiduguri Airport, again by Boko Haram.

In Islamabad Pakistan, at least 20 people were killed in a suicide attack on minority Shias. That came a day after 12 were killed in an attack on another Shia shrine, this time in the province of Balochistan.

It is the Shia who were manning many of the boats that we turned away a few years ago, as sectarian violence reached unspeakable levels in towns like Quetta in Pakistan. When the Pakistani Taliban targeted the Hazara community in Quetta in September 2010 at the Meezan Chowk (a market in the middle of the city), they managed to kill at least 73 people and injure 160 more. In the background of the bloody carnage is a billboard sponsored by the Australian Government, warning Hazaras against the dangers of getting on a boat to come to Australia.

The Meezan Chouk attack in Quetta, In September 2010. In the background is a billboard sponsored by the Australian Government, warning locals of the danger of getting on a boat to seek asylum.

In September, at least 117 people were killed at a mosque in Nigeria, again at the hands of Boko Haram. The simple fact is, Muslims are far more likely to die at the hands of other Muslims – or more to the point, Islamic extremists who bear no resemblance to average Muslims. They’re also more likely to be killed by Westerners, who are seeking to kill Islamic extremists. The difference is, they’re unlikely to see an outpouring of grief in Australia, or most of the rest of the world. But unlike Parisians, they already live in a state of perpetual terror. That’s why many of them have fled the Middle East for Europe, a reality which prompted this tweet this morning from American movie star Rob Lowe, a man who adequately sums up the outrage and frustration of white bigots everywhere.

Oh, NOW France closes its borders. #Hollande — Rob Lowe (@RobLowe) November 13, 2015

The sad reality is that these attacks will increase. You can’t stop five or eight people with a gun and a twisted ideology, just as you can’t stop an American or Australian military with a commercial, strategic and political interest in slaughter.

Westerners are finally being given just a small taste of the constant fear that people from other nations have endured for generations. So solidarity with, and compassion for, the French is a good thing.

But solidarity and compassion for the victims of terrorism everywhere is even better, in particular those who’ve fallen victim to the terrorism sponsored in all our names.