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Terrorist attacks in Brussels today

bluemoon7

bluemoon7

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They´ve hit the heart of Europe today,
but they won´t stop it from beating.
 
To anyone in Brussels, I hope you are safe. I hated leaving the city when I lived there, and I can't wait to come back.
 
First Paris and now Brussels. Makes me hate those damned terroists so much!

Fury aside, my prayers goes out to the people in Brussels.
 
Apart from those who died, very many people have reportedly been severely injured. The terrorists brought so much grief and suffering to so many people they don´t even know.

Also, I wonder what in the world makes people blowing up themselves to kill others. It´s scary that this sort of brainwashing is even possible.
 
moonstruck87;4142014 said:
Apart from those who died, very many people have reportedly been severely injured. The terrorists brought so much grief and suffering to so many people they don´t even know.

Also, I wonder what in the world makes people blowing up themselves to kill others. It´s scary that this sort of brainwashing is even possible.
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A maniacal desire to kill western culture.
 
My deepest condolences to everyone affected. Friends living in Brussels have been checking safe on Facebook all day long.

Let's stand together to resist violence, hatred and threats.
 
All these poor innocent people. I just have no words. But my heart goes out to them all.
I just want this to stop.
 
Horrible news..

FullLipsDotNose said:
Don't forget about Ankara, Istanbul, Bamako...
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Not saying you are doing this FullLipsDotNose, but your post reminded me of something I see a lot. I get incredibly annoyed when someone expressing their disgust/fear/sympathy/any opinion about these attacks is met with "yeah well, but what about *insert other place where horrible things have happened*?" It sometimes might be nothing more than a well-intended (but imo badly timed) reminder of other or perhaps forgotten suffering in the world, but seems to be used more frequently as a conversational tactic - either to deflect attention away from the event and/or to stifle conversation about its potential causes (again, not saying the latter applies to your post FullLipsDotNose).

Of course the loss of innocent life anywhere in the world is equally horrible, but one should not have to work through a laundry list of places where similar acts have occurred before giving an opinion on a particular terrorist attack. I also think it is natural that people are affected to a greater degree by events that occur close to them (either geographically or psychologically/symbolically). That does not mean you cannot care about multiple events, but in my opinion it is unrealistic to expect people in Turkey to worry as much about the Brussels attack as they do about the Istanbul/Ankara attacks, and vice versa. Maybe this is not ideal, but this is simply human nature...
 
innuendo141 said:
A maniacal desire to kill western culture.
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That's no doubt part of it, but the overwhelming majority of ISIL victims have of course been non-Westerners (assuming that the obviously plausible reports that these were ISIL terrorists are true). Basically, anyone who does not adhere to their ultra-violent religious interpretation is a target...
 
I really wish I could do something to help for real but I don't like pretending I'm doing anything when in reality it's useless such as "sending thoughts and prayers". I just can say it's such a disgrace it many innocent civilians are killed in the name of a supposedly "religion of peace."
 
SoCav said:
Horrible news..


Not saying you are doing this FullLipsDotNose, but your post reminded me of something I see a lot. I get incredibly annoyed when someone expressing their disgust/fear/sympathy/any opinion about these attacks is met with "yeah well, but what about *insert other place where horrible things have happened*?" It sometimes might be nothing more than a well-intended (but imo badly timed) reminder of other or perhaps forgotten suffering in the world, but seems to be used more frequently as a conversational tactic - either to deflect attention away from the event and/or to stifle conversation about its potential causes (again, not saying the latter applies to your post FullLipsDotNose).

Of course the loss of innocent life anywhere in the world is equally horrible, but one should not have to work through a laundry list of places where similar acts have occurred before giving an opinion on a particular terrorist attack. I also think it is natural that people are affected to a greater degree by events that occur close to them (either geographically or psychologically/symbolically). That does not mean you cannot care about multiple events, but in my opinion it is unrealistic to expect people in Turkey to worry as much about the Brussels attack as they do about the Istanbul/Ankara attacks, and vice versa. Maybe this is not ideal, but this is simply human nature...
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This is true. It makes me sad that humans tend to be like this, myself included.
Plus, the comlete media here in Germany is swamped with news about Brussels. They literally count up the dead and injured. Total immersion so to say. I think this also makes me more affected concerning the attacks today than concerning any other attacks in the world.

The one thing that cheered me up a little is Obama and his family visiting Cuba. Peace / friendship seems to be happening between parties / countries that were not so long ago on the threshold of another World War.
 
My condolences to the victims' families.

Extremist religion needs to be dealt with in a proper way.

A wave of bombings that killed at least 30 people in Brussels was carried out by Isis militants, the group has claimed.

In a statement released through one of its propaganda outlets, the so-called Islamic State said “explosive belts and devices” were used to massacre passengers checking in at Brussels Airport and on a Metro train.


“Islamic State fighters opened fire inside Zaventem Airport, before several of them detonated their explosive belts, as a martyrdom bomber detonated his explosive belt in the Maalbeek Metro station,” a spokesperson said.


The group claimed that the attacks left more than 230 dead and wounded, although Belgian authorities put the figure slightly lower at at least 31 killed and under 200 injured.


It said Belgium was targeted as “a country participating in the international coalition against the Islamic State”.

The timing of the attacks, coming days after the arrest of Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam was considered significant but no mention of the captured militant was made.


As the death toll rose amid continuing rescue operations, Isis supporters were championing the attacks on Twitter.

“What a beautiful day today,” one man wrote, calling the victims “Belgium supporters” who did not count as civilians.

“F***. Belgium Belgium wanted to bomb the Islamic state Now enjoy what your hands have sown.
“A lot of duas [prayers] were answered today.”
The supporter claimed to have received a message from an Isis militant to the group’s supporters in Belgium reading: “We have come to you with slaughter.”…

​
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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...t-airport-and-maalbeek-maelbeek-a6946136.html
 
From a FB group I'm part of, I was hoping it wasn't real but it is.

What the f*ck is wrong with people and their damn obssession to make selfies of everything even in the most tragic moments in life? Some people have no shame!

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only good that can come of this is is rise of parties that will close borders & deport so called refugees. let the arab countries look after their own people, not us
 
Closing the boarders won't solve anything. Not all the refugees are ISIS militants, there are indeed good people who genuinely want to escape from the wars their countries are in and improving their life conditions.
 
Darth Sidious said:
only good that can come of this is is rise of parties that will close borders & deport so called refugees. let the arab countries look after their own people, not us
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Well, that's why I mentioned Ankara and Bamako before.

The very same shit happens throughout the world by similar extremists. In some places, like in Syria, there's a regular civil war and people excape the country to save their lives. Because they are just as ****ing scared as the majority of Europeans.

I'd also advise you to look up differences among Arab nations. By the same logic, if there was a war in the Czech Republic, would you expel me from Germany (one of the neighbouring countries) and send me to Russia because we are both Slavic nations? Lol.
 
Besides, all the attacks in Europe have been carried out by Europeans. I don't think a refugee would have resources for it. You need to be very well organised and know the place. It's harder to do it if you're a newcomer to the country, hardly know the language and hardly have money.
 
Snow White luvs Peter Pan said:
Closing the boarders won't solve anything. Not all the refugees are ISIS militants, there are indeed good people who genuinely want to escape from the wars their countries are in and improving their life conditions.
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Yes, but why use logic and reason when it's so much easier to "close the borders" as a magical solution to everything? Perhaps we could ask Donald Trump to build a big beautiful wall for us when he's President. Sure, nobody can agree exactly on where Europe's borders are but we'll work out the details later. We'll also need a nice little fence around each country (all 50+ and counting) so no terrorists can go in and out! This will cause a minor inconvenience to the millions of EU citizens - myself included - who live near the border and have to cross it every day to go to work or buy groceries but at least we'll be safe. It will also crash the Single Market economy, which is already vulnerable as it is, but then we'll no longer be bothered by those pesky economic migrants. Next stop: close the internet! Isn't it wonderful how quickly we are willing to throw away our hard-earned freedoms and become exactly what the terrorists want us to be? :)
 
The reason I was pointing out accepting refugees is not the problem is because our ancestors are product of migration, the first human beings came from Africa after all. It's also wonderful in such horrible tragedies like this one getting out the worse of human kind such as racism, xenophobia, misantropy, etc, etc.
 
Just a little disclaimer to my previous post: I do believe we need to have a thorough vetting system before we let migrants (of any kind) enter the EU. I don't think any reasonable person would disagree with that. But we also have to be realistic about the fact that migration into Europe is always going to be more challenging and chaotic compared to the rest of the Western world due to our geographic location and the political, religious and economic instability of the countries that surround us. The US, Canada and Australia can take their time vetting refugees and only letting the most desperate ones in but we have to decide between watching women and children drown in the Mediterranean Sea or admitting them to our shores. They're arriving by the hundreds and thousands each year, overwhelming the already impoverished and unstable Eastern European countries. Once these refugees move west for greener pastures, their status changes to 'economic migrants' and Western Europe fears the drain they put on the welfare state as well as the difficulty integrating thousands of young men from wartorn conservative societies. These genuine apprehensions are then presented as racist and Islamophobic in the mainstream media, which plays into the hands of far-right politicians. It just aggravates me how people have such quick judgments and simplistic solutions for incredibly complex problems. Same goes for foreign policy: Americans love to complain that Europe does not contribute enough in the fight against ISIS and Russian aggression and dismiss us as "freeloaders" but they never take into consideration that Europe is in a much more vulnerable position to do so. I'm sure the US would think twice about meddling in messy Middle Eastern conflicts or challenging Russia if it had the Middle East on its southern border instead of Mexico and Russia to its north instead of Canada. Then again Middle Easterners think we are involved in their countries too much and need to mind our own business, not realising that we are directly and gravely affected by the instability in their countries. You can't expect Europe to take in millions of refugees and not take any initiative to stem this flow at the source.

So, there are no easy solutions and I honestly don't know which way to go now. But I do know that I don't want to live in a Europe that retreats to narrow-minded nationalism and suspicion of foreigners. We have come too far for that.

End of rant :)
 
Closing the border is not a solution. But opening the gates and inviting everyone to come in while doing minimal to no screening - which is basically what has happened - is downright risky as well. Although the likelihood that people who have recently entered Europe commit terrorist attacks might be low (as mentioned above, it is much more likely that homegrown terrorists do so), allowing anyone to freely enter your country does of course increase security risks. The heads of multiple European states have said that they cannot account for hundreds of thousands of people - they have no idea where they are or who they are. This is, at the very least, a massive logistical problem.

But more importantly, I do think you have to seriously wonder how a massive influx of people from other parts of the world will influence European societies in the long run. When you look at the studies that capture the often incredibly religiously conservative attitudes of people from these regions, that does provide food for thought... If Europe had a history of successful integration, perhaps it'd seem like a challenge that could be tackled more easily. But integration has failed to a pretty large degree in several European countries. In Belgium and France there are already entire neighborhoods that are off-limits for the police, for instance (see the homegrown terrorists). Do we really have the resources and correct procedures in place to successfully turn all these people entering now into happy, contributing, prospering members of European society? I hope so, but I am not sure we do...

To me it is a tricky situation. There is not an iota of doubt in my mind that people fleeing from war-torn countries should be helped and provided with security. It shocked me that the international community largely sat back while ISIL committed horrible atrocities against the Yazidis, for instance. At the same time, I feel like this refugee crisis has to be faced rationally. The latest data show that a large percentage of the people entering Europe are doing so for economic reasons, rather than because they are fleeing from a war. This is an example of something that needs to be taken into account, given that it is already impossible to provide accommodations for everyone entering Europe right now.

We need to find a way to help the people that need it, while at the same time being mindful of the long-term prospects of European societies. What worries me most is that the current political climate in Europe is not conducive to finding a solution. On the one hand there are politicians with a total lack of nuance and sometimes downright discriminatory opinions. On the other, there are politicians who seem so blinded by their ideology that they approach this issue without reason and rationality, and are afraid to stand up for not just fundamental European values, but fundamental human values. Think of the mayor of Cologne who, after the mass-sexual assaults on New Year's Eve, warned women to keep an arm length's distance and suggested that women should follow a 'code of conduct' and dress code to prevent further harassment. Both sides are scary and I don't feel the future of Europe is in good hands with either side...
 
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Another tragedy.. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.


^I thought this was touching. Seeing so many people come together trying to send out a message of love and unison does give some hope, although it's of little consolation..
 
moonstruck87 said:
The one thing that cheered me up a little is Obama and his family visiting Cuba. Peace / friendship seems to be happening between parties / countries that were not so long ago on the threshold of another World War.
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Thats touching and I feel the same way. It's funny though, because our own US press is attacking him for being on a "holiday" and having fun at baseball games with dictators and not flying immediately to Brussels to give speeches.

I'm on a phone and can not see who is signed on. Has anyone heard from Daryll? I don't know if she lives in Brussels or not, but she's in Belgium and have been thinking of her.
 
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