“Why us?” Because it’s not about “us”.

For decades, citizens of the failed and war-torn countries in which ISIS, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, al-Shabab, and other Islamic jihadist groups operate have asked themselves: Why must we suffer at the hands of terrorists, domestic and foreign governments for values and ideas that the majority of us do not support? Why must we be caught in the crossfire of wars that we do not want, that we did not start?

“Why us?”

Over the past year, jihadist violence has spread from its incubator countries to places like Paris, San Bernardino, Ouagadougou, Istanbul, and Jakarta, targeting cafes, hotels, and city squares — places of little strategic or “shock-and-awe” value. In an article in Wednesday’s edition of The New York Times profiling several (mainly white) victims of this recent spate of violence, friends and relatives of the victims express their grief and horror at the seeming randomness of the attacks. As one family member of the Canadian aid volunteers killed in the Ouagadougou attack said, “They did things like fix roofs and repaint blackboards. Who would want to kill people fixing blackboards?”

“Why us?”

Because it’s not about “us” as individuals.

It’s about “us” as the embodiment of a political and economic system that has left millions of people on the fringes, scraping to get by.

It’s about “us” as the embodiment of the choices our elected leaders have made in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria and beyond.

It’s about “us” as the embodiment of a level of privilege and security that many in this world will never experience.

It’s not about “us”. It’s just our turn to be collateral damage.