Target the toxic world view, not individuals

Readers wonder why terrorists are increasingly attacking European countries. Other topics: driving, US election, civil aviation

Readers wonder why terrorists are increasingly targeting European countries. Jasper Juinen / Bloomberg

After the initial shock dies down, we will see a lot of media analysis ('Blind, violent, cowardly', March 25). Some will blame the Belgian security services for not doing enough to prevent these attacks, while others will accuse the politicians for not doing enough to accommodate foreign cultures.

Meanwhile, these events will be treated as just another crime and the authorities will try to focus on hunting down the culprits. What none of them will acknowledge is that they are not fighting just criminals, but a toxic culture and world view.

Name withheld by request

The arrest of Salah Abdeslam last week might have led the terrorists to carry out the attacks. It’s quite possible that the timing of his arrest was dictated by intelligence that some sort of attack was imminent.

The recent attack on a European military group in Mali might not be unrelated. It’s also possible that the terrorists originally planned to launch an attack at the time of Easter. But the question is why would ISIL target the EU in this way?

Peter Alex, UK

The attack possibly took more time to plan than many might suspect at first. The timing of the attack could have been stepped up due to retaliation. But I doubt the attack was born out of retaliation only.

Baako Akintola, Dubai

Using indicators is not enough

In response to the news report UAE safety experts call for more patrols (March 19), some drivers do use indicators but suddenly change lanes without checking if there is someone behind is trying to enter the same lane. They think that just putting on the indicator means others should give way to them. Another trend now is changing lanes in the middle of a traffic junction.

I was taught that traffic junctions and zebra crossings are areas where one should never change lanes. These things are just ignored by drivers in Abu Dhabi. This is why we need more police presence on our roads.

S Subramoniam, Abu Dhabi

US candidates follow old path

The unedifying spectacle of US presidential candidates being obliged to present themselves before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) lobbyists is an affront to democratic society and to more than 300 million ordinary Americans (The status quo must be broken, March 23). For this is no ordinary lobby representing the views of a typical American constituency in the interests of the United States.

This week, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, as with Barack Obama before them, bowed before a right wing audience of Benjamin Netanyahu supporters whose only concern is how much they can get the American taxpayer to pay for in order to maintain Israel’s place in the Middle East and the extension of its illegal settlement project in the occupied Palestinian territories that has already induced nearly 600,000 Israelis to leave their homes in Israel to settle on Palestinian land.

Advanced weaponry and armaments are also utilised to enforce the illegal blockade of essential goods into Gaza. Demands for ever-increasing American military equipment and funding are the explicit mission of Aipac members.

There would appear to be only one solution and that is to declare Aipac and its associated lobbyists for Israel as, collectively, a “foreign agent” that overtly acts in the interest of a foreign state and one that should be either proscribed or controlled under the already existing provisions of US legislation.

Anthony Bellchambers, UK

Runways should have cameras

Regarding Russia's plan to amend the civil aviation rule (Russia may amend its civil aviation rules after FlyDubai plane crash, March 22), I think aircraft should be supplemented with remote data recording, just as all banks do. Airports should have several cameras at each end of every runway. Take-off and landing are the most critical phases of any flight.

Yasser Al Chamli, Dubai