Brussels
Brussels does not simply represent change in the terrorists, it also portends great change (or future failure) for European security services. Post-Paris, the European Union’s open borders were on life support; post-Brussels, the Schengen Agreement that requires such reliance on European counterparts is all but dead. As terrorists move freely about, a borderless Europe is already challenging, but when combined with bordered European security and intelligence services, the result is tragically predictable.
— Michael Leiter
The Washington Post
Nervous Americans look across an ocean and see a Europe that seems even more feckless and more vulnerable to terrorism than the USA. Belgian police are hobbled by rules that prohibit them from conducting raids at night. French authorities missed signs of the horrific attack that killed 130 people in Paris in November. It was only last Friday that authorities finally caught the apparent lone surviving perpetrator of those attacks, who had been living in a Muslim section of Brussels for four months, and prematurely crowed about their success.
— Editorial Board
USA Today
France’s Marine LePen called for immediately closing the border between France and Belgium and said “laxisme,” excessive tolerance, has gone on too long — and in the U.S., Donald Trump called today’s tragedy “just the beginning.” This is an enormous and pivotal test for the West. The answer to terrorism cannot be abandoning the individual freedoms of an open society, even if that is the temptation.
When people feel unsafe, they are more willing to relinquish their freedoms.
— Frida Ghitis
CNN
The attacks Tuesday in Brussels ... are also meant as another battle in a struggle of civilizations — violent religious fundamentalism vs. freedom.
We all are, in a tactical sense, soft targets. It would be easy for a determined attacker to single out an undefended place anywhere, blow it up and kill innocent people. It will never be possible to guard against every attack, any place, at any time.
... Yet, collectively, we in the West are not a soft target. ... We mourn together, we work together and, under strong leadership, we can respond together.
— Editorial Board
The Providence Journal
The attacks on the Belgian capital of Brussels Tuesday morning, which killed dozens and wounded more than 200, were obviously meant to strike terror into the hearts of free people everywhere by suggesting that they could be targeted next. But we must not succumb to fear. The civilized world must rally to Belgium’s aid, unite against those who carried out these reprehensible acts and send a clear message that we won’t tolerate terrorism.
— Editorial Board
The Baltimore Sun
After the bombings in Brussels Tuesday morning and the terrible loss of life, we can no longer say that this won’t happen here.
It has happened.
Immigration and terrorism are no longer separate problems. They are one and the same.
— Wendell Nelson
Fort Worth Star Telegram
Obama’s Cuba trip
Try as conservatives might to criticize the president’s bold normalization moves, many if not most recognize that Obama made the right decision. No one in either party can credibly argue that 55 years of a unilateral U.S. economic embargo of Cuba have helped dislodge the Castro dictatorship from power.
How about trying something new? Instead of blocking American businesses from competing in Cuba and sharply limiting the availability of U.S. goods, dollars and tourism, Obama wants to accomplish the opposite: Flood the island with all things American.
— Editorial Board
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
It is painful to see the president of a nation based on individual liberty and protection of rights under law have to keep silent about the thousands of people who have suffered oppression at the hands of the Castro regime.
It is not that I don’t understand what the president is trying to do.
The idea is like a long-term investment. But the reality of the moment is that the president has normalized relations without obtaining a schedule for resumption of democratic freedoms, human rights and property rights for the Cuban people.
— Juan Williams
Fox News
An American president is being welcomed, and his words are expected to be broadcast directly to the Cuban people. Such a thing was inconceivable not so long ago.
... Obama’s visit has been condemned by hardliners in this country, but their day has passed. The U.S. embargo, a stupendous 50-year flop, is destined to be mothballed by a future Congress. The isolation of Havana is unofficially over.
— Carl Hiaasen
Miami Herald