Deadly explosions rocked a Brussels airport and train station Tuesday morning, just days after the suspected mastermind of last year’s Paris terror attacks was captured.
‘Today is a black day for #Europe,’ German justice minister Heiko Mass said. ‘The horrible events in #Brussels affect us all.’
(Huffington World Post, March 22, 2016)
Belgian prosecutors made a point of disclosing that suspected suicide bombers shouted in Arabic before detonating their bombs at the airport, which is a signature-rallying cry of Islamic Jihadists.
The latest BBC report is that, between the two coordinated attacks, 34 people were killed and over 100 injured – numbers that are bound to increase.
We are now being treated to the customary, reactionary “show of force” featuring robocops patrolling airports, stations, and other “soft targets” from Brussels to Washington. Not to mention wall-to-wall TV coverage featuring hindsighted terrorism experts droning on about what should have been done to stop these attacks, while offering no measures that are guaranteed to stop the next one(s).
Apropos of which, Apple has been making quite a show of insisting that there’s more socially redeeming value in protecting the privacy of a terrorist’s iPhone than in providing the police access to data on it. These attacks should throw the danger of its (commercial) crusade into stark relief.
Meanwhile, as they invariably do, news anchors are repeating the same basic facts as breaking news – complete with dramatic theme music to stoke the rubbernecking interest of idle-minded viewers.
I don’t know why the media always reward these psychopaths by giving them the fame they covet; that is, by plastering their pathetic mugs all over television and reporting pop psychology about why and how they did their dastardly deeds.
You’d think … we would have figured out by now that the best way to discourage them is by focusing our attention on the victims and limiting what we say about the [terrorists] to: May God have mercy on your soul as you all burn in Hell!
(“Massacre in Omaha,” The iPINIONS Journal, December 7, 2007)
Frankly, the only public service this coverage is providing is sparing us wall-to-wall coverage of the political buffoonery of Donald J. Trump. Unfortunately, some networks are still terrorizing viewers with his mindless tweets about “sealing our borders.”
Thank God for ESPN; not least because it will probably be the only network to provide significant coverage of this final day of President Obama’s historic trip to Cuba. Notably, his activities will include President Castro and him presiding over a friendly Baseball game between the Cuban National Team and the Tampa Bay Rays….
Of course, the foreboding truth is that there’s nothing the police can do to stop such attacks – as I’ve been cautioning for over a decade:
It must be understood that no matter their collective resolve, there’s absolutely nothing our governments can do to prevent such attacks. That Americans reacted yesterday as if those explosions went off in Washington or New York should compel Westerners to focus on calming our collective nerves, instead of fretting about (or worse, trying to figure out) the motivation for and timing of terrorist attacks by Islamic fanatics.
(“7/7 Terror Attacks in London,” The iPINIONS Journal, July 8, 2005)
More to the point, there’s this about attacks to come:
God help us if al-Qaeda ever decided to emulate this feat by coordinating 10 similar bombings, at 10 football stadiums, in the 10 biggest cities in America, all on a typical Saturday in the fall, when they’re packed with over 100,000 people watching college football games. Not only would the carnage be 1,000 times more devastating, but based on the reaction to this terrorist attack, law-enforcement authorities would have to lockdown not just the airports as they did on 9/11, but the entire friggin’ country, no?
(“Manhunt for Bombers Turning Boston into Theater of the Absurd,” The iPINIONS Journal, April 19, 2013)
Indeed, it’s an indication of how powerless we are to stop or even contain such attacks that ISIS is terrorizing us today far more than al-Qaeda ever did. But a terrorist by any other name still terrorizes the same, no?
I hasten to clarify that I am not suggesting we should just lie back and be attacked. To the contrary, I’m on record supporting aggressive surveillance of terror suspects, including forcing companies like Apple to provide any information that could possibly prevent such attacks:
Notwithstanding the misguided backlash Snowden’s NSA disclosures have wrought, [Western countries] must allow their respective intelligence services to use all means necessary to surveil and apprehend the would-be terrorists amongst us before they act out their jihadist fantasies. Otherwise, we will terrorize ourselves to death if we keep reacting to every terrorist-inspired shooting as if it were another 9/11.
(“Gunman Terrorizes Canada. Keep Calm and Carry On,” The iPINIONS Journal, October 23, 2014)
I am just a realist who knows all too well that, with respect to today’s attacks in Brussels, there but for the grace of God go … we.
Disaffected and disillusioned youth … are fed up with chronic unemployment and feelings of (religious and racial) discrimination as well as social alienation and marginalization…
The riots in France should serve notice on other developed nations that have relegated immigrants to ghettos where crime and every order of vice pervade (and, incidentally, where Islamic jihadists troll for guerilla fighters and suicide bombers). Because these riots demonstrate what little spark it takes for the simmering resentment that burns in ghettos to set nearby cities ablaze and terrorize an entire country.
(“World Beware, French Riots Affect Us All,” The iPINIONS Journal, November 8, 2005)
My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Belgium today. But God help us all.
Related commentaries:
Paris…
Canada…
Apple…
World beware…