Specter of Terror Will Hang Over Europe Until Leaders Change Policy

Italian journalist and politician Giulietto Chiesa says that terrorism of the kind which rocked Paris last week will require a dramatic shift in the West's policy toward the countries of the Arab world. Otherwise, the people of Europe will continue to reap terror's bitter fruit.

In his column for Sputnik Italia, Chiesa noted that "the terrorist attack in Paris on November 14 began a new phase in European history, and will result in radical changes affecting millions of people."

"This is a war, albeit not the one which we might have expected," the analyst continued. "An even larger war is approaching, and it too will not be of the kind we might have imagined. Naturally, Italy is also at risk. We are nearing the Jubilee Year of Mercy [to be declared by the pope in 2016]. There will be public events, meetings, collective prayers. The events will require extreme vigilance and attention, not only by the police, but by ordinary people as well."

"However, we should not succumb to illusions and to think that everything which we see is really the truth," Chiesa noted. "We see manifestations of Islamist extremism; however, this does not explain anything. ISIL's 70,000-strong army has been constructed on this ideology, but resources not less than those of an entire country are necessary to create such firepower, to prepare tens of thousands of fighters and to send them off across the world."

"Thus," Chiesa said, "we see only one side of the coin, and it is amazing that the leaders of Europe do not talk about it more. Perhaps it is because they know perfectly well who it is that runs this machine of terror, and who created it. ISIL is a kind of 'specter' in which Islamic countries – Europe's ostensible allies, coexist with the secret services of those same European countries, including the French, who are at the same time charged with ensuring the safety of their citizens."

Ultimately, the journalist suggests that "we need to focus on this specter, whose members are located largely in Europe and the United States. They are the ones responsible for the tragedies in Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, Iraq. They ignited the war in Syria, and in so doing, the tragedy [in Paris] is the work of their hands. In response to the Paris attacks, Francois Hollande began bombing ISIL. However, nothing will come of this if France does not stop assisting the Syrian rebels who want to overthrow the government of Bashar Assad." The same, according to Chiesa, is also true of other Western countries, including the US, Britain, and Turkey.

"In short: Terrorism will be stopped only once the West (and Israel) change their policies toward the Arab world. Otherwise, it is the people of Europe who will be made to pay. There is a vast army of young people out there ready to be hired, ready to kill and to die. We must stay the hand of their paymasters."