http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ivan-eland/the-endless-cycle-of-terr_b_8574916.html

Ivan Eland  Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace & Liberty, The Independent Institute

The Endless Cycle of Terrorism

Posted: 11/16/2015

In the wake of the heinous attacks on civilians in Paris, the French are now prone to repeating the same mistakes the United States made after the even more barbaric 9/11 attacks. The natural reaction of politicians -- whether they be Democratic, Republican, or Socialist as in the case of President Francois Hollande in France -- is to show their publics that they are macho and tough. France's escalation of air strikes in Syria in retaliation for the Paris terrorist attacks is a good example. Unfortunately, that strutting and flexing doesn't solve the problem of terrorism and usually makes things worse. What is needed is more honesty about what causes radical Islamists' sporadic terrorist attacks on Western nations, which would lead to a more measured and effective response.
The French air strikes are in retaliation for the terror attacks, with little regard for why the terrorists attacked France in the first place. The attackers did not attack Luxembourg. As the terrorists were shooting people in Paris, they reportedly yelled that they were retaliating for French bombing in Syria. France, like the British and United States, is a former imperial power and still acts with that mentality by using force excessively abroad. The French still police their former colonies using military force and regularly are eager participants of U.S. coalitions to attack countries outside that category. For example, France recently sent troops into the African nation of Mali to beat back radical Islamists, who had obtained fighters and large quantities of weapons from the mayhem in neighboring Libya (not a former French colony), which had been caused by the French pressuring the United States to lead a coalition to overthrow Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ivan-eland/the-endless-cycle-of-terr_b_8574916.html