Nobody in the West, from the military grunt or aid worker to former leaders Tony Blair, George W. Bush and John Howard, can be held responsible for the gangland thuggery of terrorist cults like Daesh.

The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was in response to the unprovoked 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington, which killed thousands. The war may have been executed on false intelligence and a desire to be seen doing something, but it was a reaction all the same.

No Australian butchered in the Bali attacks, nor their families nor our government, should be held responsible for the Sari nightclub massacre.

The Church has a lot to answer for in the scandal of child sex abuse, but the Church, whether it be Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Anglican or Mormon, is not responsible for murderous extremism.

Terrorists may commit their atrocities in the name of Islam but we know this is a sham. Islam is the predominant religion in the Middle East and that's why it is so misrepresented and blasphemed. But, the perpetrators are simply murderous thugs using religion to mask their pursuit of power and tyranny.

When people debate the origins and source of terrorism they could no better than track the flow of refugees - where they are fleeing from and where they are fleeing to. If the West was so villainous, the West would not be welcoming and repatriating millions of refugees, at great cost in terms of societal pressures and expenditure.

Those who blame the West for terrorism are those who believe that pacifism is the best response. It doesn't work with Daesh. The modern terrorist shuns humanity and shuns hostages; using them instead as bloodied tools of propaganda.

The modern terrorist is an insane bigot, who openly mocks our misguided posture of peaceful inertia and appeasement.