Ed Morrissey:
And we have been at war for some time against radical Islamist terrorists, as Manuel Valls well knows. Paris went through a similar attack wave in November, more than likely conducted by the same network that launched multiple attacks on Brussels. The death toll has now hit 34, according to Reuters’ live-blog at this time, and it’s likely to keep increasing. Valls’ counterpart in Belgium warned the public to hear about deaths in the “scores”:
“We are talking about scores of dead,” said Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel without giving clearer estimates after blasts brought down roof panels at the airport’s departure hall and an explosion on the Maelbeek metro platform shrouded it in smoke and littered it with debris. …
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but European leaders wasted no time in linking to other attacks by Islamist militants. “We are at war,” said French Prime Minister Manuel Valls.
“We have been subjected for the last few months in Europe to acts of war,” he added. Hours early, Belgian federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said the city had come under “terrorist attacks.”
CBS This Morning found witnesses to the attacks and their aftermath. Those close enough to the attacks heard shouting in Arabic right before the explosions:
The Associated Press has cell-phone video of the immediate aftermath of the attack in the airport:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/uwtNdk6Dxw4[/youtube]
It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to look once again to Molenbeek, where Belgian counterterrorism operatives just captured the ringleader of the attacks in Paris, Salah Abdeslam. At the time, officials warned that another major operation had been in the works, but the rapidity in which it got deployed had to surprise them. If the Paris attacks first exposed Molenbeek as a threat to Europe, the Brussels attacks may take the mask off entirely about radical Islam in the heart of the continent, as the Daily Beast’s Nadette de Visser writes:
Belgium, wedged in between Germany, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, and France, has brought forth a disproportionate amount of jihadists. “The maximum number of Belgians who at one point were active in Syria or Iraq has climbed to 516,” Belgian Arabist and author Pieter van Ostaeyen said on his blog last month. Van Ostayen has been keeping a close eye on developments within Belgian minority groups vulnerable to radicalization. The number of jihadists, put into context, becomes quite alarming. “This number means that out of Belgium’s Muslim population of about 640,000 individuals, there is roughly one per 1,260 who has been involved in jihad in Syria and Iraq. At this point Belgium is, per capita, by far the European nation contributing the most to the foreign element in the Syrian war.”
There is a war going on that’s for sure. The problem is our enemies acknowledge it and are fighting it. Everyone else is either in denial (Obama and his ilk) or are admitting it but not doing much of anything to fight it (French PM).
These were NOT any more ”radical” than your run-of-the-mill Muslims who lived side-by-side with the bombers in the NO-GO ZONE in Molenbeek.
Every single so-called No-Go Zone in Europe (and, if there are any in the USA, here, too) must be INVADED and the communities within them need to be broken up.
Families need to be isolated away from other Muslim families.
That would be TRUE integration and assimilation.
Every home involved in hiding these bombers should be taken away from Muslims and given to police for a no-go zone pd.
Every Muslim in any way complicit with hiding the bombers should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the liberal, bleeding heart laws of Europe.
And the entire soft book should be thrown at them as far as punishment goes.
Also, not one of them should be allowed to use prison for dawa (proselytizing).
For thse who think this problem of murderers hiding in plain sight in a no-go zone is new, go check out the 2006 story of Ilan Halimi.
Dozens of neighbors could hear his torture.
As many as a dozen assisted in torturing him.
But we can trust our current government to vet those who are allowed to move into the US. Maybe we should make some laws preventing criminals from carrying guns or using explosives to kill people. Oh right, we have done that!
@another vet, @Randy –
In Europe, as a whole, terrorism is considered as “one of those things you need to live with.” To George W. Bush, that line of thinking was unacceptable. On September 12th, Chief of Staff Andy Card began the daily brief as a normal but W quickly out that to an end. He wanted to be briefed at how soon we could militarily crush AQ in Afghanistan. This is what we need to do ISIS – how soon we can crush them. Though we are “2-3 steps” behind them now, it wouldn’t take long for us to get ahead of them if we do it properly.
Sorry for the typo and grammatical error. Should read:
“On September 12, 2001, Chief of Staff Andy Card began the daily brief as normal. But, W quickly put that to an end. The attacks of September 11 became the priority. He wanted to know how soon we could militarily crush AQ in Afghanistan.”
@David:
Didn’t we go through this prior to 9/11 when we got 2-3 steps behind AQ? That didn’t turn out too well. You would think we’d learn from past mistakes but it looks like the pre-9/11 mentality is back in some circles. Far better to claim that there weren’t any wars on your watch as opposed to eliminating threats before thousands of American lives are lost. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We shouldn’t hold our breath waiting for this administration to get ahead of them. They’ve had since late 2012/early 2013 when they were warned of the threat posed by ISIS to get ahead of them.
Yup they are at war, and wussy bleeding hearts in charge.
NBC has a fear the right will rise and make the poor followers of the death cult uncomfortable. You knew it was a serpent when you took it in.
Deport, deport, deport, grow a border.