Unjustified wars cause hatred, further violence and terrorism

I stand accused by Dr Frank Giles (Letters, Irish Examiner, July 2) of blaming the recent Tunisian mass murders on Western foreign policy and military interventions.

My views are based on academic research on peace and conflict prevention, and practical experience on peace and democratisation programmes in countries such as Ukraine, Nigeria, Indonesia, Pakistan, Congo, Tunisia, Egypt and Israel. In May this year I narrowly escaped a terrorist attack while working in south eastern Turkey, so I have no sympathy with murderers of any type — right-wing or left-wing.

Violence begets violence, and unjustified wars cause further wars, and inevitable blowback. The establishment and growth of ISIS in the Middle East can be traced back to US support for the Mujahedeen in the 1980s against the USSR in Afghanistan. The USSR defeat brought the Taliban to power. The US overthrew the Taliban government in 2001 without a UN mandate, and failed to put an honest democratic government in its place. They then repeated these mistakes in Iraq with disastrous consequences for the Afghan and Iraqi peoples.