It’s hard to imagine how the war on terror could be viewed as a success.

Among other things, terrorism is up sharply since the war to end it began — even before the horrific bombings in London last week. The number of seriousinternational terrorist attacks more than tripled — to 655 last year from175 the year before — according to U.S. government figures.

The Bush administration was hoping to keep these discouraging numberssecret, and so decided last April not to include them in its annualterrorism report to Congress. But congressional aides, briefed on thestatistics, released them. It was the second year in a row theadministration tried to hide a dramatic rise in terrorist attacks.

This raises the question: has the war on terror actually increasedterrorism?

Perhaps terrorism would have increased anyway, but I’d guess the war onterror has made things worse. The heavy-handed methods used by George Bush(and helper Tony Blair) — including invading Iraq even though it had nolinks to 9/11 terrorists, and illegally detaining and torturing prisoners atAbu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay — have only exacerbated the rage many in theMiddle East already felt against the U.S.

The war on terror certainly does nothing to get to the root of the problem.

For several years now, a new kind of “political correctness” has preventedmeaningful public discussion about this entire subject. Despite the endlesscommentary generated by the attacks of Sept. 11, one thing was clear fromthe outset: any probing of the so-called “root causes” would be strictlyoff-limits in mainstream debate.

Perhaps this was understandable; discussing “root causes” seemed to rewardthe terrorists by paying attention to issues they wanted on the agenda. Butit’s also created a wilful blindness.

It’s interesting to note there was no such wilful blindness about the “rootcauses” of the Nazi rise to power. I recall being taught in school about thedeep sense of grievance felt by the German people over the reparationsimposed on them after World War I. This background wasn’t meant in any wayto let Hitler off the hook for his atrocities. It simply helped explain howhe’d managed to manipulate the German public to win power.

The people of the Middle East have legitimate grievances against America -from the U.S. overthrow of a democratically elected government in Iran in1953 to decades of U.S. backing of tyrants in the region (including SaddamHussein in the 1980s) to unwavering U.S. support for Israel during its38-year military occupation of Palestine.

Until the U.S. changes its behaviour, the Middle East will be fertile groundfor Islamic extremists to win recruits — and even some public support.

As long as we refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of the grievances felt inthat part of the world, let alone try to correct them, we’ll go on as weare, enjoying the satisfaction of venting our rage against the evils ofterrorism. We just won’t do much to stop it.

Linda McQuaig

Journalist and best-selling author Linda McQuaig has developed a reputation for challenging the establishment. As a reporter for The Globe and Mail, she won a National Newspaper Award in 1989...