Left: The power plant in Doel, Belgium.
There is no reason to any longer trust Europe. Europe is a collection of incompetent and dangerous nation-states with reduced sovereignty that are incapable of defending their borders and inept at ferreting out the terrorists in their midst. Typically greedy and stupid, Europe’s police and military are all but emasculated, and Europe’s tolerance for domestic and imported terrorism is outright frightening.
With all the refugees pouring in, what are they doing to screen out terrorists? Nothing. They have failed to allocate money to buy minimal equipment. Their security authorities are “detached” keeping their distance from densely populated Muslim communities and the refugees. Madness? You bet.
While Europeans amuse themselves by beating up on Israel and practicing snarky antisemitism, they have voluntarily surrendered their countries (such as they are) to domestic and imported Muslim terrorists who are steadily taking control of key neighborhoods, importing large quantities of weapons and explosives, and building close-knit, difficult to penetrate networks. The fact that most law-enforcement and security members speak no Arabic doesn’t help.
Had the terror cell responsible for the Paris and Brussels attacks delayed the attacks they may have been able also to carry out their reported plan to attack a nuclear power station.
Most Euro-police forces lack the will and, therefore, the tools to go after suspected Muslim terrorists. They show up after a terror event and parade around wearing body armor, protective helmets, and rapid fire guns. But they are poorly equipped, uncoordinated, and held in check by political leaders who don’t want to rock the boat of their illusions.
Consider the suicide bomber Ibrahim El Bakraoui. He was deported twice by the Turks who warned the Belgian authorities he was a “foreign fighter.” Unwilling to admit failure, the Belgian prime minister dismissed the interior, and justice ministers offered resignation for ignoring the warnings. However, the Belgian government is responsible for the killing of at least 31 people, more than 330 wounded, and the short and long-term enormous economic cost of the recent attacks. But the Belgians insist it’s not their fault. They claim they “are doing their best.” The prevalent attitude is, “Once people get it into their minds that they’re going to kill people, you can’t stop them.”
No matter what European bigots say about Israel, and they are always screaming the Israelis are Nazis – even worse, Jews – the fact remains that Israel has one of the best intelligence operations in the world. Unlike their incompetent counterparts in Europe, they want and work hard to stop terrorism. They would also like to protect Jews and Israelis who are all too often the target of terror attacks, as they were recently in Belgium. One can rightfully ask: how come European intelligence, or the CIA, or Interpol didn’t issue proper warnings?
Europe, in its current condition, is not only living in a terrible threat environment largely of its own making. It also presents a major threat to the United States.
Why? The lax security conditions and gross incompetence in Europe mean that terrorists can get on a plane and come to the United States. Indeed, Most Europeans don’t even need a visa to come here.
The risk of hijackings, crashing planes or importing terrorists is very high. Given the lack of effective European intelligence and monitoring, the U.S. should consider stopping all flights from Europe to the U.S. until the mess is cleaned up.
Many will say such measures are extremist and unjustified. Really? A flight from Brussels to Dulles Airport, with one or more ISIS terrorist on board, could end up smashing into the White House or the CIA complex, or hitting NSA, south of Baltimore or a nuclear power station is frightfully real and immensely dangerous. Such an event would make Fukushima look small by comparison. We already know that the same terrorists who blew up the Brussels airport and metro had also planned to blow up a nuclear plant there. Do we think that through some heavenly miracle that won’t happen in future?
The European security situation is, at the moment, beyond hopeless. It is a train wreck with existential implications for America. Our President’s inability to grasp the danger makes matters that much worse.
America can’t trust Europe right now. It is urgent that we take measures to protect our homeland.
* A version of this commentary is posted on Technology and Science.