Reactive

This morning the United States woke up to news of still another murderous Islamic terror attack in Europe—this time Brussels. The scope of the event is still unfolding, but there's a tragically predictable 'dog bites man' quality to it all. In fact, the murder of innocents after shouts of "allahu akbar" has become just another horrific news story.

I'll admit that I haven't done a detailed analysis, but it seems that Islamic terror attacks in Western nations are happening with increasing frequency and that the carnage seems to be getting worse. The authorities respond in predictable ways, shutting down airports, subways, even entire cities, disrupting economic activity, telling citizens to 'shelter in place,' promising to round up potential suspects, showing an armed presence across the country, and of course, warning the populace against any act that might be deemed "islamophobia." There is, you have to admit, a certain deja vu quality to it all.

But every one of these moves is reactive. The terror event occurs and then the government goes into overdrive. But a reactive response cannot possibly keep innocent citizens of any western country safe.

Certainly, intelligence services around the globe (although hamstrung by a new and appropriate concern for individual privacy) are doing what they can to uncover terror plots and round up Muslims who are doing the plotting. But wait, it's simply not politically correct to use the last phrase: "Muslims who are doing the plotting."  Just because the terror perpetrators are Muslims who have infiltrated western countries, who are often helped, hidden and shielded by other Muslims, and who are instigated by any of a number of Islamist (Muslim) groups, and who are often encouraged in their actions at radical mosques, we have to be sensitive to Islamophobia, don't we?

As Islamic attacks escalate (and they surely will), as more people die (as they surely will), as unease and fear begin to grip the populace of many countries, there will be a demand for governments to become proactive in their actions against Islamic terror in their homelands and outside their borders.

The problem is that this generation of Western leaders doesn't have the will or the desire to become proactive. They'll hold hushed news conferences after a terror event, telling us they're doing all they can, but are they?