By Dan Marshall

France and the Middle East; a history of tension

Jul 19, 2016 | 11:28 AM

France has been hit with three significant terror attacks in the past year and a half.

Political commentator Allan Warnke says incidents like the Charlie Hebdo shooting, suicide bombings in November, and the truck attack last week come from a long standing history of tension between France and the Middle East.

“In the Middle East, specifically in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, France actually had control over that area,” said Warnke. “That’s the reason why France is a focus of militant action.  France still has a lot of activity military wise in that region.  From the militant point of view France is an oppressor just like it was a century ago.

The latest incident in France saw a truck go into a crowd and kill 84 people.

Warnke says extremists have been setting their sights on the US, the United Kingdom and Continental Europe.

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“We tend to forget that Russia has also been subject to horrific terrorist acts as well.  Italy and Germany, to some some extent, hasn’t been exposed to terrorist attacks and so on.  There were terrorist attacks in Madrid.  I’m always afraid that something’s going to pop in Italy, and one day something will pop in Canada too.  And that’s when we’ll have our wake up call.”

A group of 85 Nanaimo high school students were in the area of the latest attack in Nice, some within 100 feet, but none of them were hurt.

It was decided the students should return home in light of the tragedy, and they are arriving in Nanaimo July 19th.