Belgian Attack

A Post from one of my European friends this morning

Well before you take your bleeding heart and change your Facebook profile pic to have the background of a Belgian flag, or you decide to post a picture of "pray for Belgium," or a picture of a heart with the colors of the Belgian flag, maybe you should think about why you didn't do the exact same for another of our NATO allies Turkey, when two bombings went off over the preceding weeks in Ankara.  Or maybe you should think about why no one really seems to care that Turkey is in a world of hurt over the refugee crisis, and in desperation, Erdogan called for help a few days ago saying: "There is no reason why the bomb that exploded in Ankara could not explode in Brussels, or in any other European city."

So I know that the majority of people will post their hearts, before returning to watching March Madness and voting for Mr. Trump.  But there is a reality in this terrorist attack that more will follow until the problem is solved, and I am sorry Mr. Kerry, and Mr. Putin, but a ceasefire does this not solve.  Nor Ms. Merkel does taking in millions of refugees.

I am not like my European friend, who posted that inflammatory picture labeling all Muslims as bad, but studies have proven that grievances and opportunities to address those grievances violently lead to violence.  And quite honestly, this whole refugee crisis has created a whole lot of grievances and a whole lot of opportunities for violence.  So to my humanist friends that say we should take in the refugees, I continue to applaud your efforts, but I still say what is your end game?  And how will you reach it?  For those realists, who say it doesn't affect us and we should just withdraw to fortress Europe and Fortress America, I ask how we prevent that, when it seems that many of these groups are home grown?

The only real way forward is to address the grievances, not prolong them, and until we come to terms with that, not only will the fortress continually be under attack, but our bastion-Turkey-may just crumble.