Terrorism dominates political debate and media coverage in Australia despite causing relatively few deaths. The deeper causes – western military violence, state power, and selective moral language – are rarely examined.

We have been flooded for weeks by our legacy media about terrorism and the Bondi killings.

In the decade to 2024 there were only an estimated 11 to 17 fatalities resulting from terrorism. In the same decade one woman was killed almost every week due to domestic violence. From 2001 to 2018 at least 293 deaths were the result of extreme heat. These climate related deaths will increase significantly. Many more die on Australian roads and from suicide and alcohol.

Yet we freak out over terrorism.

The word terrorism is probably the most abused word in our lexicon. It’s an easy word for lazy journalists. It is applied to organisations the west does not like or won’t do what they are told. Even Nelson Mandela was on the US terrorist list for over 10 years.

Terrorism is only applied to non-state actors. Hamas is a terrorist organisation but not Israel that has killed multiples more people than Hamas.

The earliest terrorists in Palestine were Zionist leaders who later became Prime Ministers.

Menachem Begin led the Irgun terrorist group before 1948. He later became the first right-wing prime minister of Israel in 1977.

Yitzhak Shamir, described by the British as a “fanatical terrorist leader,” was a member of the Stern Gang (Lehi) in the 1940s and served as Israel’s prime minister twice, from 1983–1984 and 1986–1992.

David Ben-Gurion was head of the Jewish Agency and oversaw the Haganah, which was implicated in violent terrorist actions. He later became Israel’s first prime minister.

These individuals were part of the transition from underground terrorist groups to the formal Israeli political establishment, with their organisations often evolving into political parties like Herut, which later became part of Likud.

Following the establishment of Israel, the Haganah was the base upon which was built the IDF. Perhaps IOA, the Israel Occupying Army would be more appropriate. Many of its leaders took part in leading that army as well as occupying political posts in successive Israeli governments. The terrorists became state actors and no longer terrorists. Easily done!

Terrorism today is driven by US killing and destruction of Muslim people and countries since 9/11. Australia has been supportive of that killing and destruction, from Iraq to Gaza.

Most of our political and media elite refuse to acknowledge the enormous damage that has been inflicted on the Middle East by the US, with cooperation by Australia and countries of the “civilised” west.

In his speech to the Munich Security Conference earlier this month the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio extolled the great virtues of western civilisation. He applauded the west for its “missionaries, its soldiers, it’s explorers pouring out from its shores to cross oceans to settle new continents, build vast empires extending out across the globe”. He dismissed the “abstractions of international law…The west must seek to renew the greatest civilisation in human history….We need an alliance that is not paralysed into inaction by fear, fear of climate change, fear of war, fear of technology.”

This our ally speaking. What has Rubio been inhaling to be serious about this civilising west?

President Herzog of Israel also extols western civilisation. He said “standing with Israel is standing with a strong and vibrant Israeli democracy against the darkness and terror of extremist regimes …ours is a vibrant democracy.”

Just look at what the civilising west has inflicted on Muslim people and countries.

The Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson institute has estimated the death toll in these US led wars since 2001: Afghanistan estimated killed 243,000, Iraq estimated killed 315,000. Syria estimated killed 269,000, Yemen estimated killed 112,000. The total death toll, including those killed indirectly is estimated to be close to five million people.

To those figures we can add at least 100,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza. Some estimates say that the death toll could be closer to 200,000.

A further 38 million people have been displaced in post 9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and the Philippines. And more in Gaza.

This enormous death and displacement is the result of US led and US supported wars (Gaza) and supported by allies like Australia. That is what is driving hostility to the west. Terrorism is the unfortunate response by people who have no means of contesting the military might of the US and its supporters. Western violence has enabled terrorism.

The cause of present-day terrorism is the calamitous decision of George Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard to invade Iraq in 2003 and all that followed including Gaza. Look at the evidence, particularly in the earlier years.

The invasion of Iraq created chaos and set loose centuries old religious, sectarian and tribal disputes both in Iraq and its neighbours. It also created intense enmity against the west.

Western governments deliberately set about destroying secular regimes in Iraq, Libya and Syria.

Professor Robert Page of the University of Chicago and James Feldman surveyed terrorist attacks 2004-09. They found that 87 per cent were due to the stationing of foreign troops in the Middle East.

At the Chilcot Inquiry, in 2014, Baroness Manningham-Buller, the former head of MI-5, said that the Iraq invasion had “Substantially increased the terrorism threat to the UK” by radicalising young people.

The Chilcot Inquiry also revealed that the UK Joint Intelligence Committee told the government that if Iraq was invaded then ‘attacks against western interests elsewhere are also likely, especially in the US and UK for maximum impact. The worldwide threat from other Islamist groups and individuals will increase significantly.’

Before his political masters leaned on him, the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police in 2004, Mick Keelty, told the Channel Nine National Sunday program: “The reality is that if there turns out to be Islamic extremists responsible for the train bombing in Spain it is more likely to be linked to the position that Spain and all other allies took on issues such as Iraq.”

The evidence is clear beyond any doubt that western violence in the Middle East led by the US and its allies is the driver of terrorism. It is impossible to wreak such death and disaster on Muslim lands through overwhelming military power and not be surprised that young, disaffected men turn to terror.

Our media and politicians exploit every opportunity to talk about the dangers of terrorism, but scarcely ever examine the causes of that terrorism and our contribution to it.

How could we get all this so wrong that terrorism is invariably top of mind for mainly lazy journalists when the west is the enabler of terrorism and when domestic violence, for example, is a much greater problem.

Why are priorities and resources directed overwhelmingly to counter terrorism.

I suggest there are several reasons.

First, terrorism attracts our attention because it is deliberately designed to be as visible as possible – a street slaying by knife or shooting, a bombing in a street or theatre, or a bus careering amongst pedestrians or random shooting of a crowd as in Bondi. An object of terrorists is to make their acts as vivid and as public as possible. They then claim credit for their action. By contrast, domestic violence is by its very nature behind closed doors.

Second, not surprisingly the media is drawn into the terrorist’s game-plan. Public violence is news with pictures of carnage. In contrast there are seldom pictures of domestic violence that are anywhere near as “newsworthy.”

Third, terrorism is ideal for those who work to exploit our fear of the foreigner, the outsider and the person who is different. There is a long history of this promotion of fear. John Howard, Pauline Hanson, Scott Morrison, Tony Abbott and Peter Dutton were adept. The fear promoted in Australia used to be about Asians and communists. Now it is about Muslims.

Fourth, industries have grown like topsy to take advantage of the fear of terrorism – intelligence agencies, police, airport security, businesses, think-tanks and even universities. Anti-terrorism is an opportunity in so many ways for more money and more jobs.

There are a lot of vested interests and particularly politicians who keep pushing terrorism as the chief threat. It is really a scam as Ross Gittins described it when considered alongside the threat and the facts of domestic violence, climate change and gun deaths both accidental and planned.

The facts tell us that violence and deaths from terrorism in Australia are minor compared with the violence and deaths because of domestic disputes.

And the major driver of terrorism in the world is western violence towards Muslim countries and Muslim people. But we refuse to face the facts.

Terrorists are over here because of the killing of Muslims over there.