I think that as we have defined "terrorism" today, the practice has existed for centuries, perhaps millennia. The point that some of us at least are trying to make, is that there is a startling difference today (which should be perceptible to all) in how terrorist organisations have found opportunity to operate. The attacks that yourself and others point to as some sort of evidence that US and other Western countries foreign policy haven't been an influence on are very different. For all their own brutalities, the hard line leaders in the Middle East that have been removed by our foreign policy decisions, CONTAINED the Islamic extremists, which is why they were only capable of pulling off occasional attacks. It certainly wasn't in their interests to allow Islamic extremists footholds and visible base of operation within their countries. Despite the Bush administrations claims to the contrary, no connection has ever been made between Saddam Hussein and OBL or al Qaeda. The rise in power and the widespread formidable presence of the Islamic State has a direct correlation to the absence of Hussein, Mubarak, Gaddafi and Assad (for all intents and purposes) and even the Bush era (2006) NIE, by consensus amongst the nations intelligence agencies, concluded that the invasion and occupation of Iraq had the direct result of increasing terrorism globally, and made America less safe!!! So, while the Islamic State is directly and personally responsible for each and every person they behead, burn alive, blow up or mutilate, the United States and other Western nations involved bear the responsibility of pursuing policies that have been favourable to and have been beneficial to the group, and has given opportunity for them to exploit/take advantage of the vacuums those policies have created. This is not the opinions merely of a few DP posters, educated and experienced individuals such as many at the BI, the CFR, international law scholars, former heads of AIEA, and heads of state, foreign affairs experts, etc., all to have acknowledged the same.
