Europeans bash America for shootings like the one in San Bernardino, but they have a bad record on terrorism.
The killings in San Bernardino have once again led to predictable criticism of U.S. culture.
“Just another day in the United States of America, another day of gunfire, panic, and fear,” a BBC reporter tut-tutted.
Obama incorrectly opined: “This just doesn’t happen in other countries. . . . [We need to] take basic steps that would make it harder — not impossible, but harder — for individuals to get access to weapons.”
Many foreigners and President Obama don’t understand that our Bill of Rights and the existence of 350 million weapons in this country make gun control a non-solution for most aspects of the problem. Dealing seriously with terrorist threats and mental-health-system failures would bear more fruit.
So before we launch into another cul-de-sac debate on gun control, let’s note that, when it comes to acts of real terrorism, the U.S. has had an enviable response record since 9/11. No major attack against the homeland has been mounted, and in cases such as that in San Bernardino our law-enforcement forces have responded magnificently to kill the suspect and prevent further violence.
European countries have not had as enviable a record. Take the terrorist attacks that have swept the continent in the last few years, from London buses, to a Spanish train station, to two deadly attacks in Paris in just the last year. Despite all the carnage, Europe has a whole has not yet woken up to the terrorist threat.
Take Belgium, the country where the small, impoverished borough of Molenbeek in Brussels has become a hotbed of jihadism. In just the last two years, Molenbeek residents have been linked to the 2014 shooting at Brussels’ Jewish Museum, the Charlie Hebdo attacks this January, the Paris massacres of last month, and the failed attack on passengers on a Paris-bound Belgian train in August.
In the aftermath of all that violence linked to Brussels, the capital not only of Belgium but of the European Community, the Belgians finally reacted by putting the city in effective lockdown for six days. Subways were closed, soldiers patrolled the streets, and public buildings were shuttered. The “imminent” terrorist threat that prompted the lockdown abated, and the city is back to normal.
But while Brussels was suffering under a form of martial law not seen since World War II, Belgium’s King Philip and Queen Mathilde were on private holiday on the French coast.
A photograph of him in a bathrobe and sipping orange juice appeared in the Belgian media.
Belgian prime minister Charles Michel said he was aware of the royal couple’s whereabouts but that “we could not force him to come back.” A royal spokesman said the excursion had been planned in advance and “What they did is a private matter.”
The Marie Antoinette of historical legend (“Let them eat cake”) could not have expressed the sense of royal privilege better.
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