Although Islamic State has claimed responsibility for Tuesday’sterrorist attacks in Brussels, they were also symptoms of a profoundly Belgian failure. The institutions of a well-policed and efficiently governed state have been evaporating for decades.
Belgium has been torn by the demands of its warring Flemish- and French-speaking communities. At the same time it has been squeezed by an ambitious European project that subsidized and empowered the country’s regions at the expense of the state. Belgian institutions were left hollowed out, impotent to address the strains of immigration and incompetent to penetrate a rising extremist threat.
This is at root a story of failed investment in all forms of capital — physical, human and institutional. For election cycle after election cycle, politicians squandered the wealth of the state to buy their way back to power. Investment became superfluous, vote-buying and social spending the priority. Belgian voters, who allowed this state of affairs to persist, share some of the blame.
7 thoughts on “Belgium, My Country, Is in Denial”
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This seems to be the key point:
Not a lot of good options here for drastic change, their immigration and economic policies are at the mercy of larger countries.Report
Someone commented along the lines that Belgium’s stretch without a government seemed to work superficially, but it turned out to matter in a pretty big way. That certainly seems to be the case.Report
NPR had an interview with a former NSA head who stated that the eurolanders don’t like to share intelligence between states. They will share it with the us, but not with each other. That and they don’t have as sophisticated a set of intelligence resources as the us and some other countries do. And they viewed radicalized folks leaving belgium to fight for isis as a problem solved (for their country) but didn’t have the resources to monitor them if they came back.
If true, that most certainly, played a part is all this.Report
What do you expect of a country that has a law that prohibits police from entering private homes between the hours of 9 p.m. and 5 a.m.? The only exceptions to the law, which dates to 1969, are if a crime is in progress or if the home is on fire. Or a country that claims that they don’t have enough cops to protect a peace rally?
http://thevillagessuntimes.com/2016/03/28/belgium-urges-locals-not-to-hold-victims-rally/Report
If a crime isn’t in progress, we’re talking about serving a warrant. Given that the delay of days to weeks to get the warrant has already happened, what would be lost by waiting until after 5 AM?Report
It would also seem to me that going in during daylight hours (which don’t perfectly align with the 9pm-5am prohibition) would be safer for all involved… including the police.Report
The perp could leave the location and wouldn’t be there the next day when cops show up, duh. Which is what happened to one of the Paris terror suspects.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/17/world/europe/belgium-says-law-limiting-raids-may-have-allowed-suspect-in-paris-attacks-to-escape.html?_r=0Report