So as I’m sure you’ve heard by now, there was yet another terrorist attack in France and when I read the details all I can think of is what a bunch of cowards these terrorists are. It takes a “big man” to run over people watching fireworks and if one’s god requires this then it’s a pretty lousy one.
A Frenchman of Tunisian descent drove a truck through crowds celebrating Bastille Day along Nice’s beachfront, killing at least 84 people, many of them children. The slaughter ended only after police killed the armed attacker in a hail of bullets.
Source: The Star
Unfortunately the western world will simply denounce these attacks and continue with the same stupid foreign policy that’s helped cause this whole problem to begin with. As Gandhi said, an eye for an eye makes the world go blind. Those behind this and other terrorist attacks must pay for their crimes yes but we also need to reassess what the causes of this type of terrorism is and it’s not because “they hate us for our freedom”.
To combat terrorism we need a multiple front strategy. Yes we need to define the source motivating the terrorism in the first place but at the same time we need to take active steps to “neutralize” the attacks.
My fear is that no amount of reasoning or compromising can truly prevent the fires that fan this type of terrorism. Even if we were to abandon all our beliefs, freedoms, and Middle East alliances I fear that this would still be not enough. The years of hatred has become so ingrained in these people that even showing some sign of reaching out would be viewed as a victory for them and embolden them more. I pray that we do find a way but in the meanwhile we must still use the “stick”.
Think of it this way … while we should looks for ways to prevent a virus from attacking us once it invades our body we must go at it with “full force”. You can’t reason with it, you need to neutralize it as quickly as possible to prevent harm.
What has been hampering us so far is all these “ROE’s”. We need to go “hands free” and not hold back. Yes this is unpopular, and maybe a tad immoral, but when it comes to survival only being the winner matters.
God bless all those who defend our freedom, our way of life! Bleeding hearts need not apply.
Hi Tim.
I agree with you, we do need to neutralize the attackers somehow and I’m sure the governments are doing their best at trying to keep up but trying to keep up with those who will do us harm. This course of action though means we’re always a step behind so things will slip through every now and then, all we can do is hope that when this occurs that not many people are hurt. I’m ok with loosening ROEs in the battle against terrorists but I don’t think this is an issue that we can kill our way out of.
Those that are radicalized, too bad and I don’t think there should be mercy but I think we as a society need to address why people are being radicalized in the first place and I don’t think it’s something that we can fix quickly, rather it’ll probably take decades :(. It took a long time for this to build, it’ll take equally as long to undo but the sooner we try and address the concerns of the terrorists (it is hard to know what they want through all the noise though) the sooner the healing can start.