Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks • Hacker News Board

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#221

Post by creshal » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 1:57 PM UTC

rtpg wrote: post #180

creshal wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's been clear that something needs to be done for years And what? That "something" needs to be done was clear since the 80s, but so far constructive solutions have been rather sparse. Integration is too expensive to the austerity and privatization loving right wing, and expulsion doesn't work because our economies depend on cheap immigrant labour. So far I've not seen anyone seen pushing for a different solution.

How about letting people be who they are without whining about people's behaviors not being "French enough" or whatever? Say what you will about America's institutional racism, but I have rarely heard an American whine about people not acting American enough (maybe I'm hanging in the wrong circles) Meanwhile I would hear a lot of complaining about riff raff accumulating around ethnic grocers and the like messing up t…

> How about letting people be who they are without whining about people's behaviors not being "French enough" or whatever?

Belgium does not have this problem.

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#222

Post by DavidHm » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 1:58 PM UTC

pluma wrote: post #169

ZanyProgrammer wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's simply no way that even if we wanted to, restoring Assad in Syria will ever work again. Too many (basically, everyone whose not an Alawite or Christian) people will never acquiesce to living under his rule.

Anything's better than the status quo. The only difference between Assad and the other remaining dictators in the region is that the US was heavily invested in getting rid of Assad -- and then Russia came and basically ruined their plans indefinitely. If there's one Muslim country whose government is in dire need of being overthrown it's Turkey -- but sadly Erdogan has learned from his country's past and made sure th…

Around 2010 I was speaking with a Turkish friend. I expressed my admiration towards the fact that the Turkish military has multiple times intervened to stop the country from becoming religiously-governed. She (while not being religious) did not fully agree, as she thought democracy was more important.

Fast forward a few years and she has completely turned around and regrets her former opinions.

This doesn't really prove what is the correct approach, but I think speaks about the fact that we often make decisions based on some vague ideals as opposed to practical and realistic outcomes - and we are sometimes wrong.

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#223

Post by SonicSoul » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 1:58 PM UTC

ant6n wrote: post #189

rtpg wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A major airport and the entire rail system of the city was shut down. A lot of damage was done. And, of course, a bunch of people died from something not many signed up for. Driving a car at least gives you the opportunity to reject taking on the risk. The fabric of society is based around us not shooting each other/ blowing up trains. Every event like this (or, say, some countries bombing out neighborhoods in other…

I don't drive a car, I cycle. I reject the risk of driving, but drivers put that risk on me anyway. Even more so than they do to themselves, because I'm more vulnerable than a person sitting in a moving steel cage, and because many drivers seem eager to put risk on me. In my life time, I'm much more likely to be murdered by a driver than a terrorist.

wait. you cycle because driving is too risky? are you statistically less likely to get injured while cycling, or is it mainly about caring for not injuring others?

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#224

Post by maze-le » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 1:59 PM UTC

eveningcoffee wrote: post #17

odinduty wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess it's hard to feel in any other way when recent migration policies have translated into a sharp decline of our own security in our own developed countries.

Maybe yes, maybe not, but you are a troll who created the account about 24 hours before the attacks.

Seems he even bought a clique of downvoters with him.

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#225

Post by dominotw » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 1:59 PM UTC

DoubleMalt wrote: post #136

What I find reassuring in the midst of this tragic mayhem however, is how little actual damage the terrorists could do. They had explosives, weapons, the resolve to sacrifice themselves and tried their best to do as much damage as possible. And they managed to to kill less than 30 people (provisional count). Of course every death that brought on by this fanatic mob is too much, but we should keep our perspective. A b…

Terrorist attacks by definition aim for psychological effects over monetary/human cost. I think they have more than achieved their objective with this attack.

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#226

Post by themartorana » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 2:00 PM UTC

JshWright wrote: post #47

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…

I haven't read the entire Atlantic piece, but given the fact that we know there is an ISIS affiliated group operating Belgium, I don't see how you can possibly be so certain it wasn't ISIS. I think it's far more likely that these attacks were triggered by the recent arrest of Salah Abdeslam and the killing of Mohamed Belkaid (in two different raids). There were multiple other suspects who were not captured/killed, an…

I think there is a marked difference between ISIS affiliated and ISIS supported. Any group can claim affiliation/solidarity with ISIS. But I really do recommend reading the Atlantic piece, it's the only deep dive I've ever seen written that explains some seemingly inexplicable behavior.

That said, I agree this is likely retaliation, I'm just not sure how big the "enemy" we're fighting in Belgium is. Today's attack took a minimum of what, 3 people?

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#227

Post by braythwayt » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 2:00 PM UTC

odinduty wrote: post #8

rplnt wrote: post #2

The comments there are... as expected I guess.

I guess it's hard to feel in any other way when recent migration policies have translated into a sharp decline of our own security in our own developed countries.

A throwaway account called “odinduty” is espousing anti-immigration sentiments?

Will wonders never cease. But let’s stick to what HN does best, discuss the wonders of technology. In this case, I’d liek to administer a Turing Test:

The hypothesis is that ”odinduty" is a reasonably sophisticated bot, trained to emulate the kind of comments you find on /r/Europeans. Can we find it making a statement inconsistent with this hypothesis?

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#228

Post by sydneysider » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 2:00 PM UTC

I wonder how long it will take for people to connect the dots... Meanwhile Europe has no borders, massive security risk which we are only beginning to see the consequences of.

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#229

Post by Thriptic » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 2:01 PM UTC

rawTruthHurts wrote: post #154

DoubleMalt wrote: post #136

What I find reassuring in the midst of this tragic mayhem however, is how little actual damage the terrorists could do. They had explosives, weapons, the resolve to sacrifice themselves and tried their best to do as much damage as possible. And they managed to to kill less than 30 people (provisional count). Of course every death that brought on by this fanatic mob is too much, but we should keep our perspective. A b…

Comparing terrorist attacks with traffic accidents is quite a display of originality.

Not really. The point is that people are irrationally afraid of incredibly improbable / statistically insignificant events and the result is bad policy decisions / suboptimal use of resources by reactive governments.

People should be much more afraid of dying in a car accident than dying at the hands of terrorists, yet few people are urgently pushing the government to enforce stronger safety standards in cars / on roads. Instead people demand better security to protect them against things they are unlikely to be involved in to begin with.

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#230

Post by mdemare » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 2:01 PM UTC

rahvin wrote: post #121

tremon wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not any capital city - Brussels specifically. There was a lockdown of nearly a week after the Paris attacks. People were really bracing for an attack, in a way that London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Vienna, etc. weren't.