I note that Brussels, Belgium, is “locked down” for the third consecutive day in response to a threat of assault by Muslim fighters. Think of that! This great and gracious Western city, the capital of united Europe, is closed for business. Shops are shuttered, cafes and restaurants closed, public transportation suspended, and the streets, until recently so alive with the purpose and bustle of a modern Occidental metropolis, are nearly deserted, but for armed men. The “free” people of Brussels shelter in their homes, waiting out the siege, hoping for the best.
I suppose it would be fair to say that this, among other things, is “what ISIS wants”.
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ISIS is “contained” so says Obama. By the look of things, the capitol of the European Union is as well with not a Muslim insight. Belgium, where allied soldiers fought the Battle of the Bulge not even a life time ago against another deadly enemy.
“… that this, among other things, is “what ISIS wants”.
Yes, and among those other things looms WMD attacks in the heart of the West. So, while Obama was yammering about Assad’s WMD attacks and red lines, somehow our leader from behind failed to take not of the intelligence that some of those Syrian rebels and ISIS acquired WMD capability.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/08/14/us-officials-investigating-if-isis-used-chemical-weapons-against-kurdish-forces/
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/exclusive-chemical-weapons-used-in-syrian-fighting-watchdog/ar-BBmSxTl?li=AAa0dzB&ocid=mailsignout
And if sarin and mustard gas aren’t horrific enough, here’s a chilling piece by Claudia Rosett. She writes:
“But is there yet another failure of imagination in the making, on a scale that could dwarf the horrors that have become ritually familiar in the headlines? Is the clock ticking toward some unimaginable midnight of terrorism gone nuclear?
Not that no one has imagined this. Thriller writers from Tom Clancy to Vince Flynn have imagined it in detail, Hollywood has made movies about it, policy experts have held conferences and written papers, government committees have delved into it, and there are government security procedures and agents trying to monitor and thwart any such catastrophe.
But do the folks in the cockpits of western policy take this threat seriously? No such attack has happened to date. In the habitual human calculus that tends to amount to an expectation that somehow it won’t; that however real the danger, the chances of it happening are still a matter of improbable odds. It still belongs to the realm of fiction.
Map the dots, however, and ask yourself if the probabilities are rising.”
https://pjmedia.com/claudiarosett/the-next-failure-of-imagination-nuclear-terrorism
fyi
http://www.fpri.org/articles/2014/07/dirty-bombs-reason-worry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsumoto_incident
It looks like the Russians are getting the “flies on the fly paper” treatment. Turkey has apparently downed a Russian fighter jet, apparently Syrian rebel groups that the Russians have been attacking had seen the pilots descending under parachutes into Syrian territory and killed both pilots. It is hard to be a super power these days.