Europe: The End of Normality

by Lieven De Cauter  |  21 January 2015  |  http://www.lobelog.com/europe-the-end-of-normality/#more-27729
The events in France (Charlie Hebdo and other attacks) and Belgium (a raid in Verviers that prevented a similar terrorist attack) mean the end of normality for Europe and the beginning of a long state of emergency. The idea of the war on terror as a permanent war is backfiring in a big way: we are becoming part of the permanent war zone. Since both France and Belgium have been bombing the Islamic State (ISIS or IS), we really are at war. Two hundred radicalized Muslim youngsters went from Belgium to fight in Syria with IS, and those who came back are trained soldiers who can organize terrorist attacks. Apparently in Verviers a cell of returnees planned to attack a police station and kill all those inside. Europe seems doomed to replay the sort of state-of-emergency crackdown that happened in the United States after 9/11.

In Belgium this state of emergency is tangible. The army is in the streets for the first time since the terrorist attacks of the Communist Combatant Cells in 1984. We are in an extreme and chilling situation. Some people like this sort of muscular politics. Our rightist politicians in the NV-A (New Flemish Alliance)—local neocons with nationalist overtones—are receiving as a late Christmas present the sort of pretext they were looking for. The idea to have the army on the streets was in the official program of the current Belgian government—which includes the NV-A as part of the ruling coalition—dating back to August. The attacks provide the perfect occasion to implement that plan. The army on the street may also come in handy when the next strike comes along (the autumn was full of protests against economic austerity).http://www.lobelog.com/europe-the-end-of-normality/#more-27729