I started blogging in 2003, and my very first post was about 9/11. There's some salty language in that post, but, early on, I decided to forego cursing in my written missives--not out of any prudishness, but because it tends to blunt one's point rather than sharpen it.
I have made exceptions, however, and I feel like making one today. In the last 24 hours, there was a set of coordinated terror attacks in Brussels ostensibly in response to the announced capture of Salah Abdeslam--one of the planners of last years' Paris attacks. At last count, 26 are dead and 135 are injured.
People who pay attention to these things may also recall that a huge Islamic terror attack occurred in Ivory Coast last week.
Many observers--including me--have lamented that terror attacks in Africa don't get the same amount of coverage and outrage as do those which happen in Europe and America. But as a person who frequently points out the bugs and features of human nature as it is rather than as it "ought to be," I have to admit that it's normal to be more outraged when a jihadi jihads up in San Bernardino rather than in a place where they and their compatriots have been for generations, like, say, Lagos, Nigeria.
And the most unnerving thing about this attack--besides the usual death and destruction--is the symbolic value of the location: Brussels.
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| NATO HQ in Brussels |
Brussels the location of the headquarters of both the European Union and NATO. The Islamists just told Europe (again) that not even its seats of government and defense are safe. That's a more pertinent reason for lament. African capitals don't have the security that the second capital of the free (for now) world has.
We remember how the USA answered when the spiritual fathers of today's Islamists sent that same message to us. Sadly, I don't think that the European leaders are up to that response--not emotionally, not militarily. In fact, if it comes out that they allowed this and other attacks to happen, I wouldn't be surprised.
Poor Europe. Their ancestors ruled the world, then went too far
. Now it seems that the continent is hell-bent for the other extreme: extinction. Middle ground.Ever heard of it?UPDATE: Ankara, March 13:
A car bomb in the capital city of Ankara exploded leaving at least 37 people dead and more than 100 injured, according to the Turkish health ministry. On Saturday, an ISIS-connected suicide bomber killed at least four in a busy tourist area in Istanbul.To Turkey as to Ivory Coast. And shows of digital outrage are merely moral preening anyway.
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