Attacks in Brussels, Belgium

[samurai_sarah]

41 minutes ago, Mercer said:

Yesterday there was an active shooter situation near the building where I was in a meeting. The police were able to locate the shooter a couple of blocks away, but when the situation first started the reports were confusing and all we knew was the general area. Fortunately it ended reasonably well (no one was killed, most of the shots didn't hit anybody, and after a standoff of a few hours the shooter was arrested) but it made for a really weird and saddening afternoon.

After that, it was hard to come home and know how to reply to news of a terrorist attack. It wasn't that I didn't care, but it just wasn't easy to find the words to talk about it. 

Obviously I'm not trying to compare the two things, because there's no comparison, but the local incident was very much affecting my state of mind when I was trying to figure out how I wanted to respond to the Brussels tragedy. My mind was kind of blank for what I could say about it, and it took me awhile to formulate even the simple thoughts I eventually expressed.

I'm sorry you had to deal with that. Glad to hear though that no one got killed. I hope that whoever got injured will recover quickly and without complications.

[LaParisienne]

(Grosses pensées pour tous les belges et vos proches! )

I have still no words to describe how I feel for all the people who died during these attacks and their family, for all the ones who went to their job and never came back home..

Seriously, Europe is becoming more and more fuck*d up each day ..

[mstee]

I was watching the news on the attacks, and they kept showing a video taken in the subway after the explosion, and you can hear a young child screaming and crying. It was just devastating to watch. 

I personally struggle with two different attitudes towards terrorist attacks.  Sometimes I feel like "fuck them. They won't win. I will not live my life in fear". And sometimes I think, well maybe being cautious about things isn't a bad thing (like after that movie theater shooting in Colorado. I just avoided movies for a little). I guess probably a lot of people struggle with how to cope. And I can't imagine being a survivor of the attacks or a family member of someone who died and all those emotions. 

My heart just goes out to anyone who is suffering in this world. I wish we could do better. 

[Hera]

At this point, I have - I don't want to call it fatigue because that grossly minimizes what happened and how horrified I am - but it's the entire predictable aftermath cycle I'm so weary of: news coverage, political bluster, anti-Muslim acts, increased suffering of innocents on all sides ... and nothing really changes. And, I certainly don't know what to do to change things, either. It feels like the world has just gone mad in the last few years and there's no stopping the cycle until it burns itself out. I really hate having that viewpoint though. 

[roddma]

I only found out about it the next day reading a Duggar Fb page. Im not sure how I missed i the first day. Im sorry for anyone impacted. This has nothing to do with right/left, anti or phobia anything. SO let's not make it that, ok? it is terrorism Terrorists dont care about our freedom regardless of the face. It makes me wish organized religion would vanish from earth.

[Cleopatra7]

Just when I thought I couldn't get more pessimistic about the human race, this happens:

http://neurope.eu/article/police-clashes-far-right-demonstrators-brussels/

A peaceful memorial to remember the victims and show national unity was hijacked by far-right anti-immigration demonstrators who not only destroyed the candles and makeshift shrines to the dead, but shouted racist slogans and made the Nazi salute. The riot police had to be called out to disperse the crowd with water cannons. You can't even have a positive event without having organized jerkery (not a word, but it should be) ruin it. Interestingly, all the far-rightist rioters were male, which is similar to to rallies held by Islamists, which are also all male affairs.

[Myrtille]

They apparently destroyed the memorials on Place de la Bourse  This makes me so terribly  sad, as if the attacks weren't enough. 

[canbritam]

The news here also showed the hooligans (as they were called here) punching a man in the face when he tried to protect the memorial.  To me, these people are no better than the terrorists (though the terrorists are worse).  They want to terrorize others, the ones that they believe don't belong in "their" country.  The majority do not commit mass murder, but it doesn't make the people they are terrorizing any less scared

[Peas n carrots]

The news here also showed the hooligans (as they were called here) punching a man in the face when he tried to protect the memorial.  To me, these people are no better than the terrorists (though the terrorists are worse).  They want to terrorize others, the ones that they believe don't belong in "their" country.  The majority do not commit mass murder, but it doesn't make the people they are terrorizing any less scared [emoji20]

I'm really worried what is going on with far right reactionary movements in Europe and the US. It seems like these groups never went away but just went dormant.

I'm not sure what the answers are - just serious concerned we are spiraling towards WW3.

[Clementine]

In September I predicted  that we will see terrorist attacks in Europe perpetrated by Swedes. It didn't take long to see it happening.

The alledged commander behind the Paris attack is Mohamed Bekaid,who was shot to death in a raid in Brussels , an Algerian who lived in Sweden, before joining the Islamic State in Syria in 2014.

Another Swedish accomplice in the Brussel bombings is Osama Krayem from Malmö. Krayem was charged over his role in the suicide bombing at a Brussels metro station. Born in Malmö, he traveled to Syria to join the Islamic state in 2014 and wrote about it on Facebook and was congratulated by his siblings. 
http://www.thelocal.se/20160409/swede-arrested-in-connection-with-brussels-attacks

I am so sorry that my country's lax laws has allowed this to happen and now Europeans are paying the price for it, in blood.

On the same theme, the US killed two Swedish IS leaders in Iraq earlier this month:
http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/715790/department-of-defense-press-briefing-by-col-warren-via-teleconference-from-bagh