We know that after the attack today that it is only a matter of time before there is another……airports seem to be a popular target but there are other targets, soft targets, that would be a better prize for the terrorists to approach.
After the attack at the Brussels airport I got to think about other possible attacks sites……I started my research looking for the spot where it is likely that another attack could occur…..and after reading for about an hour I came across a paper written in World Affairs Journal…..no need to continue to research….it is a perfect piece….
Trains are the perfect venue for terrorists as the attack on the Metro in Brussels illustrated…….The BBC reports the bombing at the Maelbeek metro station came one hour after twin airport blasts. The bomb went off in the middle car of a three-car train as it was moving along the station platform.
Last September the Islamic State threatened the West, but the EU still needs to improve security for trains and stations, where security is far more lax and the public more vulnerable.
Source: Europe’s Vulnerable Trains | World Affairs Journal
It has been tried….unsuccessfully I might add…..but that will not deter the terrorists from trying again…..trains in Europe cross many borders and would be the biggest bang for the buck, so to speak…..
This is far from over and the more the governments tighten their grip the more dangerous this will become…….one hand washes the other…..
I think London is a possible target
London was a target before….I would think that a new region would be considered like Rome or Vienna…..chuq
London has the same level of insecurity as Brussels , Rome of course is a target of course as is the capital of catholic church … but vienna …. however i’m wondering when all these will stop ?
Italy has many cities that could be targeted…open borders is a problem that needs to be overcome….chuq
London has been a “possible target” since…well, probably since the first time the English stopped getting along with the Irish.
When you’re the capital of a global empire, even one that the sun has long since set on, you’re a “possible target”. Empire certainly has its downside.
The plaintive query in the above comment struck my irony bone, to wit: “When will all these will stop?” I say irony because it is a question which, in today’s world, has become rhetorical; the answer is always the same.
When people stop buying arms, it will stop. When people refuse to kill for a principle, of any kind, (religious, physical, political, national), based on delusions of differences, it will stop. When people grow the fuck up, and stop listening to politicians, and preachers, and imams, and fucking popes, it has a chance to stop. Otherwise, it will continue, unabated, for their is no limit to the power of human cupidity, driven by the power of unreasoned hatred, which is merely another form of cowardice, based on unreasoning fear of the unknown, i.e. ignorance.
gigoid, the dubious
I am working on a piece about terrorism…what is to be done….the reactions are wrong in my opinion….should be done in a day or so….chuq
Thanks, you saved me a (much, much, longer) tirade on a day when my typing hand is virtually inoperable.
The one angle not present is the “Until we stop shitting our pants.” As long as we keep giving these losers the attention, the angry reaction and the sheer panic (aka “terror”) they so desperately crave, we give them all they can ever hope to achieve.
Because they ultimately can’t get anything else. They can’t take us over. Shit, they can’t even take over their own home turf from wet-paper-bag states like Iraq! They can’t convert us into Muslims. They can’t even make us treat them with basic human dignity. Above all, these losers can’t make us give them the love their mommy & daddy failed to. All they can do to us is shoot a few of us and blow up a few bombs from time to time. But this only because damn near any idiot can do these things now because assault weapons grow on trees now.
While I agree that fear, and, its inability to handle it with any degree of success, is humanity’s biggest problem (based as it is in our very nature….), I can’t help but also believe that regarding any other human as “they”, versus the obligatory “us”, is also a serious mistake. The differences in philosophy and/or religion, or nationality, are all delusions, distinctions that don’t exist in reality. As long as humans keep insisting on maximizing their differences, and denying their obvious connections to each other, then we will continue to squabble like the little children that most people are, wandering this complex world without their reason, filled with fear of what they do not comprehend….
It isn’t us versus them, it is just us, and we need to stop the bullshit, and grow up to realize it.
gigoid, the dubious
The idea that you can do ANYTHING against train terrorism is beyond ludicrous.
Oh sure, you can put cameras on every train and cover every cm of every station. Other than violate everyone’s privacy, all that would do is generate loads of great video of suicide bombers blowing themselves, and dozens of others, to smithereens. Said video could be run on endless tape loops on the news. That will sure make us all feel safer! And it will sure as hell leave the terrorists feeling like they failed!
Yes, you can run every passenger through a Rape-scan, go through every bag, fingerprint, DNA swab and strip search everyone before they get on the train. That might only cost a few hundred billion and make train travel as slow & frustrating as air travel. Hell, it might even stop a clumsy attempt, or two, a decade.
And then the train pulls out of the station, goes over the nearest bridge, or car crossing, where it goes BOOM! Because unless you’re willing to fence off & patrol every single km of rail in your country, you will be powerless to do anything.
This isn’t like air travel where, without a jet fighter or surface-to-air missile, you can only strike via the airport. Trains and cars are vulnerable everywhere and attacking them requires little or no risk to the perpetrator.
Terror will find a way no matter what you do to prepare….
That was largely true even before terrorists had no intention of making it out alive. Nowadays, security is even more useless than before.
But I don’t think it gets ANY more obvious than the train example. All the money, manpower, passenger hassle & violation of privacy required. Even if it made the stations 100% safe (and as the TSA airport jokers continually prove, it doesn’t do jack squat.) all you gotta do is walk a couple 100M further down the line.
And in the process, it would make train travel as intolerable as air travel is now. The ease & relaxation of train travel is probably its single biggest selling point. You can trick airline passengers into thinking they’re safe by harassing them. Few fly more than a couple times a year. But for Europeans especially, train travel is a daily thing. Can you imagine a 30-60 minute daily commute you have to show up for 2hrs in advance and requires a twice daily humiliation? If you make train “security” even 2% as onerous as airports, kiss train travel goodbye!
All for something that can be defeated by just walking 100M down the rail line? But lots of idiots are actually considering it. Canada’s utterly broke, government owned, passenger rail service actually considered wasting millions on more invasive security. Toronto’s Union Station already has far more cameras than Canada’s national TV broadcaster. But VIA Rail was willing to spend money it doesn’t have to delude people into thinking they were safer…when they already were as safe as they’ll ever be!
This came after a sketchy FBI “Newburgh Sting” operation they ran on Canadian soil. And the kicker is that the FBI created “plot” didn’t even involve a train station. So the very inspiration for the increased security exposed the uselessness of the proposed increased security! These are the idiots in charge of our safety.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/via-rail-mulls-tighter-security-after-alleged-terror-plot-1.1335182
There have been numerous cases where the FBI et al have created plots…but I agree train travel is about to become a headache….it is all just a terrorist ponzi scheme to keep the cash coming…
More likely to die from slipping on a banana peel.