The unfortunate terrorist attacks in Paris are likely going to lead to even more violence and turmoil in the world.  It is also going to lead to bigger government.

After multiple attacks across Paris – almost simultaneously – there are going to be further divisions of public opinion.  Assuming that everything is as it seems, then there is little question that this is a classic case of blowback.

To be clear, this isn’t to fault any of the victims of the attack.  They are victims.  They are in no way directly responsible for what the French government has done in the past – at least that we know of.  Most of the victims are probably not even indirectly responsible.

So this is not an excuse for the terrorists who committed this atrocious act.  But I have to make this clear because there are always child-like responses when people talk of blowback.  They will claim that we are blaming the victims or that we are saying the victims somehow deserved it.  This is not true at all.

The primary victims of the attacks are the people who died and who were injured and their close friends and family.  Unfortunately, the French people are going to be secondary victims, not just because of the increased fear, but also because of the response of their government.  It is already in lockdown mode and it is going to be something of a military police state for a while now.

If the French government responds with even more aggression – likely against people who were in no way involved in these attacks – then there will be new victims in the future.  They will be victims of the French government.  These will not be called terrorist attacks, even though innocent people will die.

But the world didn’t start on November 13, 2015 in France.  It isn’t a story of the French just sitting there minding their own business.  Perhaps most of the victims were just sitting there minding their own business, but unfortunately for them, their government was not.

This is a classic case of blowback.  It appears to be an attack by ISIS or some kind of group that came from the Middle East – most likely Syria.  The U.S. government has been trying to overthrow the Syrian government for several years now, even though Assad is probably one of the less hostile dictators.

The U.S. government and its allies are also responsible for the existence of ISIS.  If there had been no Iraq War, there would be no ISIS.  Even worse, it seems that the U.S. government is fighting ISIS at one moment and then is actually arming ISIS and allies of ISIS at another.  The U.S. government is arming rebels to go after Assad.  It has all basically led to a war-torn region, particularly in Syria.  It has killed a lot of people.  It has driven out Christians who were accepted under Assad.  It has turned millions of lives upside down.

This is one of the main reasons there is now a refugee crisis in Western Europe.  People tend not to like living in regions where bombs are going off on a consistent basis.

The French government has been something of an ally to the U.S. government.  The French military has been dropping bombs on Syria since late September.  It was already supposedly going after ISIS in Iraq.

How many people died in Syria from French bombs?  And when that happened, were there candlelight vigils being held in France or the United States or anywhere else outside of that region?  Was it headline news?

For some reason, many westerners think that some lives are just more valuable than others, even when it involves completely innocent people.  Most of the people from Syria are not terrorists.  They are not inherently bad people.  But when a country drops bombs and kills innocent people, it tends to make friends and family members mad.

We can be fairly certain that the family members of the victims in Paris are mad right now and some of them probably want revenge.  It is just as certain that family members of innocent Syrians who died from bombs being dropped on them are mad and seeking revenge.

Of course, we shouldn’t seek revenge on a whole country.  Nobody should.  This is group think.  If you are going to seek revenge at all, it should be for those who are directly responsible for the violent acts in the first place.  This goes both ways.

Therefore, the terrorists that just committed the murders in Paris are guilty of murder.  But the military people who drop bombs on innocent people in Syria and elsewhere, along with those who issue the orders, are also guilty of murder.

Unfortunately, violence usually begets more violence.  It is a bad cycle that has to end at some point.  Only people responsible for a crime should be punished for that crime.  It shouldn’t be a whole country or society or religious group or race or any other group of people.  Individuals are responsible for their own actions.

The people of Syria are not responsible for the actions of some terrorists.  I am not responsible for the actions of the U.S. government.  Most French people are not responsible for the actions of the French government – at least in a direct way.

This violence has to stop at some point.  We need more people to stand up and say “enough”.  It is time to end the violence.