The recent attacks by ISIS/Daesch have take place in Belgium. Aside of the violence and death I have left a bit cold or depressed. The reaction has been typical with more fear, more calls to violence and more grist to impose fear and loss of liberties.
I found Simon Jenkins article again insightful.
One would think that politicians and policymakers would come up with more thought out reactions than to talk of war and more security.
We need to look at ourselves more in what we do currently and how we should respond.
Paranoid politicians, sensational journalists – the Isis recruiting officers will be thrilled at how things have gone since their atrocity in Belgium
Source: The scariest thing about Brussels is our reaction to it | Simon Jenkins | Opinion | The Guardian
‘Those who live under freedom know it demands a price, which is a degree of risk. We pay the state to protect us – but calmly, without constant boasting or fearmongering. We know that, in reality, life in Britain has never been safer. That it suits some people to pretend otherwise does not alter the fact.
In his admirable manual, Terrorism: How to Respond, the Belfast academic Richard English defines the threat to democracy as not the “limited danger” of death and destruction. It is the danger “of provoking ill-judged, extravagant and counterproductive state responses”.
The menace of Brussels lies not in the terror, but in the reaction to the terror. It is the reaction we should fear. But liberty never emerges from a Cobra bunker.’
