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'US war on terror encouraging terrorism, radicalism'

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Perhaps at no other point in recent history has humankind been more exposed to such level of terrorism and extremism than today. From Middle Eastern and North African countries to Europe, terrorist incidents have increased drastically in the past decade and the so-called anti-terror efforts of Western government have failed to produce any tangible results. In this episode of The Debate, Press TV has interviewed author and political commentator, Paul Street, and US foreign policy and national security analyst, Lawrence J. Korb, to discuss the growing threat of global terrorism.

Lawrence J. Korb sees a link between the recent surge in global terrorism and the expansion of Takfiri groups like Daesh, explaining that since these terrorist outfits are losing ground in Iraq and Syria, they are trying to take the war to other countries, particularly via suicide attacks.

“I think many of them [terrorist attacks] in Europe are increasing because ISIS [Daesh] is on the run in Iraq and Syria. The coalition that the US put together has almost taken Mosul [and] they are going towards Raqqah and the idea that they [Daesh terrorists] are going to have a caliphate in the Middle East does not seem to be realistic anymore,” Korb noted.

“So, they are trying to deal with this situation by attacking outside the Middle East, sending people back to those countries or inspiring people in those countries to take action against those countries because of their position in the war of Iraq and Syria,” the analyst underscored.

The image grab shows analysts Paul Street (L) and Lawrence J. Korb on Press TV's 'The Debate' show on April 10, 2017.

However, Paul Street, the other panelist on the show, pointed the finger of blame at the United States, saying that Washington’s so-called "war on terror" is actually pushing the terrorist groups around the world towards more violence and radicalism.

“The war on terrorism is a war of terrorism. It is a contradiction in terms. Obama’s drone program was inherited by Trump and the United States is currently involved in drone warfare in more than seven nations, predominantly Muslim nations. It is in itself an act of terror that provokes and inspires terrorism,” Street noted.

He further warned that deep-rooted poverty, institutional racial discrimination and social inequality have overwhelmed Western societies, thus making civilians, minority groups in particular, prone to terror and violence.

“There are recruits that are easily found in rich nations, including the United States and also of course in the Western Europe,” Street said, adding that “the folks living under conditions of alienation and poverty in the neo-liberal regimes ... are susceptible to ISIS’s [Daesh] desperate cause for actions outside the Levant.”


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