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Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

wsj.com

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Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#121

Post by rahvin »

tremon wrote: post #112
dmichulke wrote: post #7

As sad as it is, I think the responses will be: - we need more surveillance rights and money for the secret services - we need more police and higher spending - and possibly bomb some country (Syria is en vogue) What won't be said is: - How come this happens again without anyone having seen it coming? - What does it say about the success of the Western anti-terror foreign policy adopted ~2001?

How come this happens again without anyone having seen it coming? But they did see it coming. From what I gathered from the response of many Brussels residents and airport personnel, the question was "when", more than "if".

That's really easy to say about any capital city, but not what the parent means at all.

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#122

Post by raverbashing »

pstuart wrote: post #107
raverbashing wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How come this happens again without anyone having seen it coming? A lot of people could see it coming, except for the naive PC people

Political correctness supports terrorism? I bet you are as anti-terrorism as they get.

When they think it's all puppies and rainbows, yeah

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#123

Post by DanBC »

Kiro wrote: post #79
dmichulke wrote: post #7

As sad as it is, I think the responses will be: - we need more surveillance rights and money for the secret services - we need more police and higher spending - and possibly bomb some country (Syria is en vogue) What won't be said is: - How come this happens again without anyone having seen it coming? - What does it say about the success of the Western anti-terror foreign policy adopted ~2001?

> we need more police Why is this a bad thing? I feel safer with more police presence but maybe that's just me.

It's expensive. It has some effect on civil liberties.

Does it work? The cost and human rights interferences are easier to take if more police works, but there's no evidence that it would.

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#124

Post by microtonal »

mistermann wrote: post #106
balabaster wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get dogs trained to detect explosives patrolling all areas of the airport and I'm not sure what they're called, but they have these sniffer devices at the CN tower where they basically make you walk through a large hairdryer and it sniffs the residue blown off you for chemical signatures. It's not perfect, but a combination of those two things any place where you have large volumes of people congregating would surely…

Perhaps, but then bombs could just be detonated in open public squares, playgrounds, etc - it's actually surprising they're not.

Indeed, you cannot protect any place when more than a few people gather.

You have to stop the issues at their source: why did people who were born and raised in Europe radicalize in just one or two years? And why did the community they lived in not see or report that this was happening?

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#125

Post by Majestic121 »

golemotron wrote: post #72
themartorana wrote: post #15

This is a mess larger than I can comprehend, with scores of innocent dead. The spectrum of political issues this crosses is vast. We're talking nationalism, immigration, religion, extremism, surveillance, privacy, and war to name a few. The nuance required to understand and attack the big picture is almost nowhere to be found. I saw the French PM said something like "we're at war" - I'm not sure who they're at war wi…

> This is a mess larger than I can comprehend, with scores of innocent dead. The spectrum of political issues this crosses is vast. We're talking nationalism, immigration, religion, extremism, surveillance, privacy, and war to name a few. The nuance required to understand and attack the big picture is almost nowhere to be found. The problem is very simple: cultural incompatibility.

Oversimplification of complex subjects neither leads to useful action nor helps to understand the issue.

It is better to stay humble, as the parent comment was.

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#126

Post by ptaipale »

ekianjo wrote: post #67
jonatanheyman wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to BBC the explosion are believed to have been in the checkin area, i.e. outside of the security screening.

This is a clear weakness of airports: where people regroup even before reaching the terminal, with no surveillance or security checks whatsoever. And that's not just in Brussels.

And of course not just in airports. Train stations, buses, markets, theatres, concerts (Balaclan), anything you have in city life where people gather together.

Metros and mass transit are generally the most lucrative target, as we see here, and as we saw in London 10 years ago.

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#127

Post by danharaj »

mtgx wrote: post #105
themartorana wrote: post #15

This is a mess larger than I can comprehend, with scores of innocent dead. The spectrum of political issues this crosses is vast. We're talking nationalism, immigration, religion, extremism, surveillance, privacy, and war to name a few. The nuance required to understand and attack the big picture is almost nowhere to be found. I saw the French PM said something like "we're at war" - I'm not sure who they're at war wi…

The media certainly doesn't want to discuss the real issues in regards to terrorist attacks and why they may exist. I don't think it's as simple as "they hate our way our life" as the governments around the world try to portray it and the media seems to go along with it without questions that logic.

Of course it's not "they hate our way of life". Unless "our way of life" is letting our governments run amok destroying their homelands, installing brutal dictators and kleptocracies, and selling all their resources to multinational corporations; then when they flee their countries, "we" separate them off into banlieues and exclude them from social and economic participation.

Everyone loves the material wealth neoliberalism gives them, but acts completely oblivious when confronted with the pure violence of its operation outside of the western bubble.

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#128

Post by pjc50 »

DanBC wrote: post #70
tomp wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not exactly true; e.g. in the UK, there was a lot of terrorism in the past by IRA - although Ireland and the UK have different religions, I don't think that was the main issue. The main issue was divisions between two groups of people and the resulting inter-group hate. On the other hand, religion is probably the most important, yet arbitrary and completely illogical, divisive influence in the world. So, relig…

You don't think religion was the main issue in the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sectarian_violence#Northern_Ir...

Not religion in the sense of theological belief, but religion in the sense of loyalty and belonging.

Christianity fractured in 1517 over the question of the extent of Papal authority and corruption. This led to centuries of power struggle as to who was superior: papal authority or civil authority? The UK eventually decided for civil authority in 1688 by installing a Parliament-respecting Protestant monarch rather than a Pope-respecting absolutist Catholic monarch. The ensuing fighting was ended at the Boyne in 1690. But it's still a battle the commemoration of which leads to fighting in the street in NI.

This led to a position of Catholic oppression by Protestants for centuries. Is this really a religious issue, or a self-perpetuating cycle of violence?

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#129

Post by danharaj »

ageofwant wrote: post #115
noobie wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am almost certain they are not doing this for attention.

Why do you think that ? What possible aim could it serve other than getting attention ?

I'm pretty sure someone who wants attention so much that they are willing to murder people to get it isn't going to tolerate being ignored.

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#130

Post by golemotron »

Majestic121 wrote: post #125
golemotron wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a mess larger than I can comprehend, with scores of innocent dead. The spectrum of political issues this crosses is vast. We're talking nationalism, immigration, religion, extremism, surveillance, privacy, and war to name a few. The nuance required to understand and attack the big picture is almost nowhere to be found. The problem is very simple: cultural incompatibility.

Oversimplification of complex subjects neither leads to useful action nor helps to understand the issue. It is better to stay humble, as the parent comment was.

Dismissal of analysis neither leads to useful action nor helps to understand the issue. Think about it. You owe that to yourself.
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