Official StWC statement on Brussels attacks.
Stop the War Coalition unreservedly condemns the attacks in Brussels today, for which the perpetrators alone bear responsibility. Innocent people going about their daily lives are again the victims of ISIS violence. Our thoughts are with the victims, their friends and families.
These bombings are a fresh and bloody illustration of the failure of the fifteen-year war on terror. There is an urgent need to end the cycle of war and terrorism which has killed hundreds of thousands, displaced millions, wrecked one state after another, and allowed ISIS to thrive.
Western policy has made this situation worse. It is in those countries targeted for military intervention that ISIS and similar groups have entrenched themselves. Libya is the latest example.
Any plan to really tackle the menace of terrorism must include an end to such military interventions, rather than planning to escalate them.
It must also include an end to western backing for Saudi Arabia – diplomatic, military and through arms sales. Saudi-sponsored ideology fuels ISIS and its pseudo-caliphate. It is time the peoples of the Middle East were given the chance to rebuild their countries and confront reactionary organisations like ISIS themselves. Until that happens, terrorism will endure and carnages like today’s risk being repeated.
