In a terrorist attack not seen since 911, when Al Qaida slammed two hijacked US jetliners into the twin towers of New York’s Trade Center, and the bombing of London’s underground trains and buses, civilization has been under horrific siege again.
I’m flying to New York today for the traditional family Thanksgiving. I was also planning to see a couple of Broadway shows in the city but will now try to avoid crowded places. The most number of casualties in the Paris carnage were in a crowded concert hall where an American rock band was performing.
More than 129 people were killed in the simultaneous ISIS terrorist attack at six sites in the heart of Paris. The number of casualties could rise as many of the 350 victims rushed to hospitals were in serious condition. Six of the terrorist suicide bombers blew themselves up while two others were killed in gun battle with French police. It is not known how many of the terrorists were still at large. The City of Lights is gloomy and in a lockdown mode.
Leading the global condemnation, US President Barack Obama said the Paris attack is “an attack against all of humanity.”
“This is an act of war,” said an outraged French President Francois Hollande as he declared a state of emergency and mourning.
An act of war it is and France should have seen it coming. The French after all had joined the US-led coalition, bombing ISIS strongholds in Syria and Iraq. An investigation concluded that the fatal crash in Egypt of a chartered plane carrying 224 Russian soldiers was caused by a bomb planted on board. Russia, acting outside the coalition, was also carrying out air strikes against ISIS to protect long time ally, the beleaguered Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
ISIS stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria that Muslim fundamentalist have carved out of the two civil-war stricken countries in the Middle East. The extremist group known for beheading captives has claimed responsibility for the synchronized siege in Paris.
In the wake of the Paris attack, security was tightened at the Philippine International Convention Center, the venue of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Manila this week and at several hotels where heads of states, including US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping, will be staying. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indonesian President Joko Widodo cancelled because of pressing problems at home.
The siege in the French capital will surely have repercussions in other European countries which are being swept by a wave of migrants fleeing the fighting between ISIS and the unstable governments of Syria and Iraq. The mostly Muslim refugees numbering in the millions have been given asylum by Germany, Austria, France and the UK. They will now be looked at with suspicion as potential terrorists although most of them came with their families who fled a brutal war. Through television cameras and newspaper photos, the world followed the perilous journey of these poor migrants crossing the Mediterranean on rickety boats, trekking with children on their backs and clawing at barbed wires along borders to get through barriers for the final frontier to a better life.
The tragedy of it all is that the countries that gave them sanctuary, are now also under siege from the very forces these migrants had fled.
Expect the Paris outrage to be followed by an outcry to stop granting asylum to the migrants. Europeans cannot really be blamed for fearing a threat to their way of civilized life. Citizens of any country certainly won’t want to host foreigners who might be potential terrorists in their midst. Too often, some of these migrants, after being granted citizenship by their host countries, go back to their country of origin. Radicalized by Al Qaida and ISIS, they return to commit mayhem in the countries that have given them refuge.
For sure, there will be a backlash led by the National Front, the ultra-conservative French political party of Marine Le Pen who opposed the influx of migrants from former French colonies in Africa and the Middle East. Already the third largest political party in France, Le Pen’s National Front could gain more followers to erode the support of Socialist President Hollande, who was in Manila on a state visit earlier this year.