Sitting on the terrace of a quiet cafe in Mdina, I kept thinking and wondering why Islamic State terrorists killed scores of people in Paris who were guilty only of enjoying themselves on a Friday night! It's incomprehensible, beyond my understanding.

Before the massacre in Paris there was the rampage in Beirut and the Russian plane bound for St Petersburg which exploded in mid-air killing all passengers and crew. And if this was not enough, there was another cruel atrocity which unfolded last Wednesday in San Bernardino, California.

In an era of escalating violence in the Middle East and elsewhere in Europe, political observers are still struggling to understand not only the forces driving attacks but also the very nature of what they are seeing! Assailants heavily armed and spraying bullets left, right and centre, are mowing down innocent men, women and children for their rotten ideological fantasies.

As the list of victims grows, there seems to be no end in sight to destabilize these atrocities. The forces of law and order seem to lack a clear strategy - the absence of professional ground troops in Syria, the missing diplomatic plan for a Syrian settlement, the failure to address the growing tension in Libya and the impact of the terrorist threat there, which is increasing by the hour.

Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly clear that the combined efforts of France, Russia, the UK and the United States with their continuous bombings on ISIS strategic positions Syrian and Iraq, do not add up.

Jos Edmond Zarb

Birkirkara