Tragedy in Brussels - and the US
Multiple terrorists struck Brussels today, killing at least 30 people. It was a particularly chilling event, because the few details we have at this point show a very well organized attack with outstanding tradecraft.
What does that mean? First, they were able to secure effective bombs and weapons in the heart of Europe - not easy to do. Second, they were able to get to where they wanted to be within the train station and airport to create the maximum fear. That's not the same as maximum damage - there are other ways they could have caused more outright harm.
But what they did was excessively public, leaving scores of wounded and hundreds of witnesses. That's key - their goal is to create fear. Murder is just a tool to induce mass fear. So enough people shot enough phone video to get their message out instantly on social media. The social media response gains them immediate public terror. It's also a recruiting tool for them.
Third, their targets were perfect. Even for the 'cooler heads' among response leaders, if an airport and a train station are hit, you don't have a choice - you must shut down all transportation. What a coup for them to shut the place down.
And in the same day, they're getting their biggest win of all: Western overreaction. While President Obama's response (from Havana!) has been measured, as has Hillary's and Bernie's, the Republican Ship of Fools has seen the rocky shoals and gone 'full speed ahead' into them.
Trump started with assurances that he would break every rule of decency and civilization and institute a full-on, no-holds-barred program of outright torture. This wold be in order to stop, well. I guess once you do that, you really become the problem. A USA that bars people on purely religious grounds, tracks and surveils its own citizens on the same grounds, mercilessly and routinely tortures and kills terror suspects and runs American concentration camps - well, that's not much of a country to root for. I guess Cape Breton really will fill up fast.
Concentration camps? Nobody's talking about that, are they? Well - how do you think 11 million Hispanics get 'rounded up?' They're not going to put them in individual taxi's and drive them out. They'll have to group them together before sending them off. That's the "concentration." part. And where do you think all the Muslim refugees, immigrants, and even visitors will be held? They'll be 'concentrated' as well. I can't wait to see who gets concentrated after that. Gays? Jews?
So the Trump dystopia is looking particularly bleak today. The success of the terror attack will get the right-wing coward vote out in droves.
Cruz has what is possibly a worse response. I know. Hard to imagine.
Here's Ted: "We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized." But how do they get "radicalized?" Maybe by having their neighborhoods patrolled by heavily armed police who treat them like terrorists?
People - particularly young men who suffer higher unemployment and are less engaged with communities - are recruited to become extremists because the extremists are the only ones who seem to care about them. They are fed a cause and are made part of a group. They are made to feel important, maybe for the first time in their lives.
The real answer is the we have to engage with Muslim communities to bring them closer to us, not to isolate them like lepers. The more we send armed paramilitary police to walk around with AR-15's giving every brown kid the stink-eye, the more we help ISIS.
The terrorists pulled off what seems to be a significant win for their odious cause today. But their real gains will come with every Trump/Cruz idiocy, every racist Archie Bunker tirade they indulge in.
We need to learn how to do security and vigilance right, without stomping civil liberties and making 50 hour of recruitment video for ISIS every time they pull off a mass murder. If we can ever figure that out, they will no longer have an incentive to commit atrocities in the first place.
What does that mean? First, they were able to secure effective bombs and weapons in the heart of Europe - not easy to do. Second, they were able to get to where they wanted to be within the train station and airport to create the maximum fear. That's not the same as maximum damage - there are other ways they could have caused more outright harm.
But what they did was excessively public, leaving scores of wounded and hundreds of witnesses. That's key - their goal is to create fear. Murder is just a tool to induce mass fear. So enough people shot enough phone video to get their message out instantly on social media. The social media response gains them immediate public terror. It's also a recruiting tool for them.
Third, their targets were perfect. Even for the 'cooler heads' among response leaders, if an airport and a train station are hit, you don't have a choice - you must shut down all transportation. What a coup for them to shut the place down.
And in the same day, they're getting their biggest win of all: Western overreaction. While President Obama's response (from Havana!) has been measured, as has Hillary's and Bernie's, the Republican Ship of Fools has seen the rocky shoals and gone 'full speed ahead' into them.
Trump started with assurances that he would break every rule of decency and civilization and institute a full-on, no-holds-barred program of outright torture. This wold be in order to stop, well. I guess once you do that, you really become the problem. A USA that bars people on purely religious grounds, tracks and surveils its own citizens on the same grounds, mercilessly and routinely tortures and kills terror suspects and runs American concentration camps - well, that's not much of a country to root for. I guess Cape Breton really will fill up fast.
Concentration camps? Nobody's talking about that, are they? Well - how do you think 11 million Hispanics get 'rounded up?' They're not going to put them in individual taxi's and drive them out. They'll have to group them together before sending them off. That's the "concentration." part. And where do you think all the Muslim refugees, immigrants, and even visitors will be held? They'll be 'concentrated' as well. I can't wait to see who gets concentrated after that. Gays? Jews?
So the Trump dystopia is looking particularly bleak today. The success of the terror attack will get the right-wing coward vote out in droves.
Cruz has what is possibly a worse response. I know. Hard to imagine.
Here's Ted: "We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized." But how do they get "radicalized?" Maybe by having their neighborhoods patrolled by heavily armed police who treat them like terrorists?
People - particularly young men who suffer higher unemployment and are less engaged with communities - are recruited to become extremists because the extremists are the only ones who seem to care about them. They are fed a cause and are made part of a group. They are made to feel important, maybe for the first time in their lives.
The real answer is the we have to engage with Muslim communities to bring them closer to us, not to isolate them like lepers. The more we send armed paramilitary police to walk around with AR-15's giving every brown kid the stink-eye, the more we help ISIS.
The terrorists pulled off what seems to be a significant win for their odious cause today. But their real gains will come with every Trump/Cruz idiocy, every racist Archie Bunker tirade they indulge in.
We need to learn how to do security and vigilance right, without stomping civil liberties and making 50 hour of recruitment video for ISIS every time they pull off a mass murder. If we can ever figure that out, they will no longer have an incentive to commit atrocities in the first place.
posted by fiduciary at 3:59 PM
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