THE appalling events outside Parliament last week rightly deserve the universal condemnation from all decent people.

As with those in France last year and other atrocities, they are disgusting acts of random violence.

The national media and some politicians lead the hand-wringing. But that is not enough.

The question needs to be asked – where does this violence come from and, most importantly, how do we counter it?

Is our response to simply bomb again various parts of the Middle East? The latest estimate is that for every Isis fighter killed, ten civilians also die as a result of “collateral damage” (an awful phrase).

The UK, USA, France and other Governments cannot abrogate their responsibility for the rise of al-Qaida (originally funded by the Americans in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation) or for causing their presence in Iraq following the invasion 15 years ago.

They were not there before.

We can now add Libya, Syria, Yemen to this list (and Isis as a consequence).

We “intervene” and anarchy ensues, to say nothing of hundreds of thousands of deaths of innocent people.

Our assistance, demonstrably, does not work – in fact it makes things worse. Why are we involved?

Is it for the oil or to sell massive amounts of arms to extremist groups on all sides or to counter Russian aggression?

That is another debate for another occasion.

What matters is the result of our actions are deaths of innocent citizens, over there but back in the UK as well.

There are wars that must be fought such as the struggle against Hitler and his like when our own country was under direct threat.

I am not a pacifist but these Middle East adventures are not justified and they have consequences.

They lead directly to murderous acts here at home – last week in London, the 7/7 attacks, the death of Jo Cox MP.

I condemn these without qualification but I also say “stop”!

If the UK wants to defeat terrorism, take away the one thing those extremists can use to justify their atrocities – UK involvement in the deaths of innocent people in the Middle East.

Alex Knutsen, Roedale Road, Brighton