Terrorist Attacks in Belgium: Europe United?

I hope that is the goal of you and your people. So far the action taken and statements by your leaders point very solidly in that direction.

IMO, it is equally dangerous to underestimate or overestimate the degree of threat these terrorists pose. If you will recall, I voiced my DISagreement with Trump's proposed temporary Muslim ban many times. (Repeating, cause I am sure some here have forgotten that is my position). I see where he is coming from, but I just cannot get myself to agree. Notice I am NOT being irrational like so many Trump haters, and claiming the suggested temporary Muslim ban is somehow similar to FDR--a Democrat--rounding up American citizens that happened to be of Japanese descent and chucking them into large jails. I firmly believe a ban is NOT the proper policy, even though it is clearly legal.

So I don't advocate overdoing it, but that is tough/impossible to guarantee when so many 100s of Belgiums just lost a loved one to terrorists that will NEVER choose to stop.

 

Questions for belgian peeps;
1:Ya'llright?
2:Whats the dealio with sharia4belgium right now because those ****s sometimes spill over the border and clearly I am not confident in belgiums ability to stop terrorists.
3: why is poepen in flemish a word for having sex instead of the obvious dutch word for going nr 2, totally miscomunication about intended use of toilet cubicle.

also aditional info:
Isis oficially claimed responsibility.
the suspects:


apparently police took suspects for the train station bombing alive already

 

we should focus on the positive... german ladies in uniforms that are not also nazis





they could be I guess I can't tell their politics

 

No matter what their politics are, I still appreciate such cute lethality. Actual assault weapons means these gals are legit. I would comply with their orders.

 

this just makes it sound like you thought european swat/military police were gunless like an english bobby walking a route trough a quiet neighborhood checking for windows left open a wee bit too far and warning people of the posibility of being burglarized.

instead of you know... equiping cops for role and occasion...
as opposed to using taxpayer money to buy an artillery piece to show how tough on crime you are as to get re-elected

Remember, those mexican drug cartels are known to hide landmines on american soil. arizona police need landmine proof vehicles.

 

Geressen, give me some credit. Of course Europe has fantastic police and law enforcement. They get the job done, when needed. I said the gals were legit lethal.

That tank is fraggin awesome!! My respect for his badassery just increased. Thanks for sharing.

 

tank is cool, but the reason it exists isn't https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Arpaio

but this is going off topic we need the belgians in here to tell us how they are and what is what.

 

Feeling the Bern again. Please don't tell my family.


March 22, 2016

“We offer our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones in this barbaric attack and to the people of Brussels who were the target of another cowardly attempt to terrorize innocent civilians. We stand with our European allies to offer any necessary assistance in these difficult times.

“Today’s attack is a brutal reminder that the international community must come together to destroy ISIS. This type of barbarism cannot be allowed to continue.”

http://www.nytimes.com/politics/fir...anders-decries-barbarism-of-brussels-attacks/


Notice he said "destroy", not contain. He gets it. Reality FTW.

 

I've mentioned before that currently the problem is there is no endgoal/endgame in syria for the west. simpler for russia because obviously : "Kill everything opposite of our ally assad" is much simpler than "throw bombs only on religious fundamentalists and try and stay out of the other parts of the civil war with the dictator and hope things improve." now I wonder what Bernies plan for that near proxy war is but I havn't looked into it because I can't vote for US president anyway and I was busy looking into what I should vote on the advisory referendum on the association treaty between EU/NL and ukraine.

I'm thinking of voting yes, sure it benefits the businessmen of both countries and doesn't really benefit the average joe of either country but it also messes with the relations between russia and EU and declines russias influence on ukraine while increasing EU influence. see I think we should oppose russia because they've been literally hitlering with their anschlussing

that said the Ideals and positions bernie has espoused are I think the right choice for the american people and the world at large. sadly the american people seem to disagree, but there is always hope.

 

Big chunk of a Bloomberg View article follows:

March 22, 2016

Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders spoke to the Brussels Forum on Sunday morning and detailed the successful efforts to arrest Salah Abdeslam, believed to be one of the main plotters of the Paris attacks in November. He was captured in the Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek.

Abdeslam told Belgian authorities while in custody that “he was ready to restart something from Brussels,” Reynders said. Belgian intelligence determined that Abdeslam had built a new network of support in Brussels in the four months since the Paris attacks, expanding to include criminal networks that worked with the terrorists to share apartments and leverage connections to procure weapons.

“There are many networks, not only members of his family,” Reynders said, adding that there more than 30 people had been involved in the terrorist attacks in Paris and “we are sure there are others.”

The problem of foreign fighters leaving Europe for Syria and then returning to Europe to level attacks on civilians is not new. In May 2014, a French national returned from Syria to Europe, where he attacked the Jewish museum in Brussels. Intelligence sharing between the U.S., European countries, and countries in the region -- especially Turkey -- is key to combatting this threat, Reynders said. He added that cooperation was improving.

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-03-22/belgium-warned-of-attacks-it-wasn-t-enough

(Emphasis mine).

 

the problem is you guys don't want to be entrenched in a civil war cluster**** in syria because that would mean backing up russias ally or going into a new cold war supporting the other non isis rebels in a proxy war against russias ally assad.

it's currently a no win situation to act. while the fact is ISIS needs destruction you cannot do that with boots on the ground in syria without causing a major upset in global political dynamic.

anyways russia isn't making itself popular either. so many sanctions going both ways between russia and the west and even turkey it's an economics trade war. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/07/russia-retaliates-western-sanctions-ban-food-imports

 

Agreed because that is the reality of the situation.

I believe the best goal is destruction. Advocating for containment implies that a tie is the best we can ever get. Maybe that is true, but we should try to win.

 

TONS of great quotes. Appreciate the solid share. American forces have killed 1 million peeps during Obama's tenure. He has bragged at being such a good killer. Curious choice of words for a guy that "won" a Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. (What a firking joke of an award that year)!

ISIL is not yet destroyed. We have made progress during the last 7 years. Maybe the next POTUS will finish the job, if that is even possible.

Obama is all for mass migration of "refugees", and ISIL has and continues to use that policy to terrorize wherever they desire. Are we at war or not?? Obama is trying to have it both ways, and that will never work. I believe this is war, and in war you CANNOT advocate for 100s of thousands of warrior-aged men from the countries you are bombing back to the stone age to freely enter your nation. Madness, and not in the MTG way. We should help them over there, instead of importing more terrorists.

I still don't believe we should ban all Muslims. But the disconnect between bombing and mass immigration is counter intuitive. to say the least.

 

Arpaio is a despicable human being



Anyhow, on the belgium stuff. From what I can gather agencies were tracking them, but couldn't prevent the bombs. Estimates of about 150 people with a flag on that we should be tracking. Poor works of some agencies coming to light now, as bad as tragedies are, they have a way of sharpening and streamlining agencies responsible. Let's hope that's a positive from all of this.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1033_program
Most of it is free surplus military equipment due to wars winding down. The program was created because the police departments couldn't afford to arm themselves to compete with drug cartels.

And yes, it's friggin cool as hell.

 

Also, spoke with PoxPoints, who lives in Ghent (35 min. from Brussles) and he is fine.