It comes as no surprise that today's events have led to some moronic opinions or given pre-existing ones their platform.
Explosions reported at Brussels airport.
- Thread starter Nick 0208 Ldn
- Start date
Just happy that a friend of mine in Bruxelles is alright along with his family.
@Red Defence
Anyone with the ability to use a search engine is able to find instructions how to assemble a suicide vest or belt. The equipment is easy to get. It's really not very sophisticated. How exactly is intelligence supposed to prevent these events where you don't need meticulous planning or particular skills? You cannot monitor hundreds of individuals every single hour of the day.
Anyone with the ability to use a search engine is able to find instructions how to assemble a suicide vest or belt. The equipment is easy to get. It's really not very sophisticated. How exactly is intelligence supposed to prevent these events where you don't need meticulous planning or particular skills? You cannot monitor hundreds of individuals every single hour of the day.
Happens every time there's a terrorist attack. There's either posters who seek to dignify their pre-existing ignorant views /agendas, and others who let the emotional tension get to them, leading to posting some pretty moronic outbursts.
I think it should be an unwritten rule that some posters wait a day or two before diving into the discussion to not embarrass themselves in the heat of the panic.
Sounds like that's what they're doing in Schaerbeek now. Feels so strange sitting here watching it - I lived in Schaerbeek once upon a time.
I heard 31 on one channel, 36 on another.Wait until Trump gets started
What's the confirmed number of dead so far?
Bombing the Middle East will not lead to the wiping out of ISIS so, yes, it actually will be used to drive recruitment. Why do you think they are carrying out these attacks? Do you think they are doing it because it will stop Europe and the US from attacking them, or the opposite? They are highly organised, so you can expect that their strategies are as well - they know what will happen because of these attacks based on our historical responses, and surely retaliation is exactly what they want.
Secondly, ISIS is not a direct consequence of us 'not doing our jobs properly'. It's not 'our job' in the first place. It exists as a consequence of a strategy that has been demonstrated to be unsuccessful for well over 15 years now, so at some point you have to ask yourself whether it is time to change strategy.
You lost me in your last paragraph..."They aren't simply pissed off at us for past attempts at us trying to run the world..." So you recognise that at least part of the problem is 'us trying to run the world', but then I don't follow that the solution to that would be doing 'our job properly' or whatever other terms you want to use instead of 'us trying to run the world' a bit more.
ISIS exists and recruits as a result of current foreign policy in the US and Europe - Iraq * 2, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan (all failures that have strengthened extremism both at home and in the Middle East) - the solution cannot be to continue with this same policy if we want things to change - we need to start thinking and acting differently, not rolling out the same old fallacious political narrative of the past decades.
It's not because it happened that it could have been avoided. We knew the chances of a terrorist attack were very high, especially after the arrest of Abdeslam. There have been a lot of other interventions to prevent attacks over the past few weeks as well in and around Brussels which probably haven't been reported in foreign countries. An attack like this is extremely hard to prevent no matter how prepared you are. I agree we should've done more over the years to maybe keep track of them or something like that but we were very aware that something like today could happen to us.
34 deaths and around 230 injured.Wait until Trump gets started
What's the confirmed number of dead so far?
In what way should this participation happen for them to be considered nationals of the countries in which they are born and raised?
Honest question, not wumming you.
more alert to
If we can do it then other countries can too.
They can pick up instructions to do so many things. They can also pick up these things in the UK too. Yet our intelligence services seem more able to detect potential terrorists and thwart plans in their early stages than other countries.
If we can do it then other countries can too.
I doubt it. Islamic terrorists have killed, what, 55 people in the UK since 2001?
25k were killed over two days by the allies in Dresden. 100k were killed during the blitz in London. Over 1m were killed in the 5 month battle at Stalingrad.
The terror is more psychological than actual.
"Moderate rebels" in the Middle East & Lybia. Terrorists in Europe.
Another big elephant in the room that isn't being discussed. All too happy to give them and their benefactors in the Gulf our blessing when they're making things uncomfortable for our secular regional rivals, but only when they turn on us do we dignify it as terrorism.
Agree with you bro.
It will happen in the UK. It's mostly a matter of time and coincidence, not intelligence services.
Just got back in from work and haven't been able to keep up to date. Apparently the pro-Brexit campaign is on the receiving end of some criticism for using today's events to make a political point about the EU being unsafe?
What the feck do people expect? That an organised terrorist attack in the heart of Europe (with obvious implications for Schengen and EU-wide movement) would not be deemed relevant to the debate? feck that. Of course it's relevant and appropriate. Once more it seems to be a case of people wanting to shut down the debate.
What the feck do people expect? That an organised terrorist attack in the heart of Europe (with obvious implications for Schengen and EU-wide movement) would not be deemed relevant to the debate? feck that. Of course it's relevant and appropriate. Once more it seems to be a case of people wanting to shut down the debate.
British security services have foiled countless terror plots and intelligence services do vary in quality. Belgium's security services have been criticised since the Paris attacks. There is a major problem with sharing of intelligence between security services and police over there. The police are also very ineffective at relations within the Islamic communities.
It will happen again in the UK though. I agree with you on that
Unfortunately it's the culture we live in. It's the "as long as he didn't shit in my sandwich" mentality. Most people didn't bat an eyelid 2 days ago with what happened in Turkey.
The polarization has already occurred. We've now got competing groups trying to define what the religion means and stands for.
Not on the day it happened. At least leave a couple of days of separation before trying to make political gains out of it. Allow Belgium to bury their dead. Then if you must bring it up as relevant. After all it's not like we are voting this week.
Nonsense. Islamic radicalism exists because of the conflict between Islam and modern Western liberalism. The two cannot co-exist; and Western liberalism is an aggressive, expansionist ideology which, unopposed, will overwhelm Islam, just as it has largely destroyed traditional Christianity.
French and Belgian security services have foiled many attacks too. Same goes for Germany, and I'm sure for many more countries. Undoubtedly there's way for improvement particularly in Belgium.
My point is though that attacks as today don't require many skills or planning. They can be prepared and executed relatively easily and quickly. No intelligence service in the world, aside from dicatorship countries, can prevent all of them.
But who decides on which kind of political points are appropriate? Is Cameron or Junker allowed to make the point that the EU borders are secure? Because you can't allow for one without allowing for the other.
To me it seems that some people are just uncomfortable with the truth.
The #brexit after talking about the attacks is was what was mainly unpalatable to me. Put your point of view if you must but that is just profiteering off of the attacks.
I feel bad typing this, but as terrorist attacks are becoming so common, I've actually become quite numb to them. If ISIS's objective is to make us terrified and disrupt our way of life, it's having the opposite effect on me. It's just become a risk you take when travelling that you don't really think about, like a traffic accident or plane crash.
I'm going on holiday on Friday and I'm more concerned about how long security will take than getting caught up in an attack myself.
I'm going on holiday on Friday and I'm more concerned about how long security will take than getting caught up in an attack myself.
The last part is sad but true.
The law of statistics says that you are very safe. Humans adapt though, if the attacks become more widespread we will become used to that too.
Probably a healthy enough attitude to have given how unlikely you are to ever be caught up in a terrorist attack. Certainly healthier than overreacting.
Think this is pretty normal. A lot of us grew up at a time when there was constant panic about possible IRA bombs, there comes a point when you adjust and a higher bomb risk becomes normal.
I am always very sympathetic with people getting caught up in these attacks. But I never give a second's thought to getting caught up in the next one myself. If it happens it happens, no way am I going to spend time worrying about it - unless there is a specific threat in a place where I am or am planning to visit.
The common decency not to use the death of innonent people for political point scoring.
Why do we class it as point scoring rather than legitimate argument? If they make the same point in a month's time, does that change things?
Foreign policy is just a manifestation of the underlying political philosophy. Don't quite see how what I said can be nonsense, unless you are saying what you wrote is nonsense too.
I was thinking that today. IRA terrorism felt a lot closer to home. Two bombs in Manchester in the 90s and the Warrington bomb that killed two kids as well.
As someone who knows nothing about Islam, why can the two not co-exist?
they are nationals. My problem is the branding home grown. They do not become intwined in the culture. Could be anything from sports , food , lifestyle , things that would have you move to a different culture/country. not segregation, by choice.
This , for the better. Reason will win in the end.
This will create more fear and anger. A better solution would be to stand together united as people against terrorism, instead of the West against Islam.
It's a blame game that has to stop. Our so called leaders have created this splitting, they are the ones who should be held accountable for their actions.
It's a blame game that has to stop. Our so called leaders have created this splitting, they are the ones who should be held accountable for their actions.
The biggest victims of Islamic radicalism are Muslims themselves. What's the conflict there?
What about forced segregation, ie, "native" populations selling up and leaving an area because they don't want to reside with the "other"? Or what about parents who will willingly send their children miles away from their home to attend a "native" majority school?