US policies root cause of worldwide terrorism: Journalist

Press TV has interviewed Paul Street, an author, journalist and political commentator from Iowa City, about the potential link between the Daesh terrorist group and Saturday’s stabbing spree at a mall in Minnesota.

Press TV: It seems that Daesh has been claiming many of these seemingly lone wolf attacks throughout Europe and the US lately. Do you think Daesh really sanctioned this attack [in Minnesota]?

Street: I doubt that it [Daesh] directly sanctioned or directed it. It wouldn't surprise me at all if there's a connection through inspiration as is often the case in Europe and in the United States where we do have hundreds of thousands of often younger and very alienated and mistreated Muslims. Many Muslim Americans have all kinds of horrible stories about how they're treated in this country and sadly do take some inspiration from some of the more egregious acts of terror  carried out by Daesh or the so-called Islamic State. [Daesh] has recently told people overseas, particularly in the rich countries including the United States: ‘Don't come to Syria! Don't come to Iraq! Conduct our “heroic” terror acts in your own countries!” It's entirely possible - I wouldn't be surprised - if the young culprit in Minnesota, and who knows culprits in New York and New Jersey, were Daesh-inspired.

Press TV: Is the US safer now against terrorism 15 years after the 9/11 attacks and after a trillion [dollars] spent on the so-called war on terror?

Street: No, not particularly. Especially after it used 9/11 as a pretext to up the ante of murder and mayhem in the Middle East. Some death counts for the invasion of Iraq go over 1 million. It's just a massive death toll across the region. It's directly traceable to the United States and its allies including above all Saudi Arabia and Israel. This feeds a bitterness and an alienation and a resentment. Donald Trump claims that it somehow mysterious why millions and millions of Muslims and people in the Middle East hate the United States. But it's not mysterious at all.

They're all kinds of soft targets in America; [they] are very vulnerable; [they] are put at risk by the US foreign policy and of course the people that make American policy. The Council on Foreign Relations types, the Trilateral Commission types, people in the White House and the Pentagon, CIA, and the National Security Agency aren't part of those soft targets. They don't have to live with the consequences of their decisions. They don't generally get shot in local shopping malls or attend a lot of the public events where the masses of people are. So that’s all quite predictable. It's nothing new.

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