IT is right and proper that all those who were killed by a terrorist bomb in Manchester should be recognised as full human beings whose lives had been cut off before in many cases they had set out on it and that we should see their photographs and hear from their grieving families, and publicly mourn their loss.

But unfortunately the victims of Western terrorism are not given this sympathetic attention, because, to use a useful distinction made by Noam Chomsky, whereas the victims of Isis terrorism are worthy victims, the victims of Western terrorism are unworthy ones.

Western terrorism, however, is not the product of small fanatical groups but of established states who falsely claim to be standing for human values. Since the Korean war in 1950, the West has fought a succession of terrorist wars. A terrorist war is one that is fought with maximum military power against states which are militarily weak The favourite terrorist weapons of such one sided wars are the bombing plane, the drone and the cruise missile: the countries targeted either have no air force at all or an ineffective one and no other means of defending themselves against constant bombardment so Western powers and those to whom they are allied like Israel can kill from the air as many people as they like with little or no cost to themselves.

Western powers are up to their eyes in terrorism: our defence is based on a willingness to commit mass murder on a huge scale. The worst single terrorist atrocity probably in human history, the bombing of Hiroshima continues to be justified in the West — no doubt by some of the very people who denounce Salman Abedi as a wicked man. If he is, so are those who deliberately start Western terrorist wars

Unless we learn to see things as they really are, we will never solve any of the problems that confront us.

Malcolm Pittock

Bolton