Stardate 20040610.0155

(On Screen): There's no reason to believe this was a terrorist attack. A bomb packed with nails went off in Cologne, causing 22 casualties, but it absolutely was not a terrorist attack.

Nope. Quite sure of that. There are no terrorists in Germany. It can't happen here. It was just an ordinary nail-bomb. Happens all the time; nothing special about it. It was definitely not a terrorist nail bomb. There is absolutely no indication of a terrorist connection.

As if.

This instant reflexive denial is like Madrid. At least in Madrid it wasn't possible for the authorities to try to pretend that there had not been a terrorist attack, but they instantly blamed it on Basque separatists. No militant Muslim terrorists in Spain, no sir! Don't need to worry about that. It's just an ordinary Basque terrorist attack, not an attack by Islamic extremists. Yup, Uh-huh.

"Considering the current evidence, it was a nail bomb," Cologne police spokesman Juergen Goebel told ARD television.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion, and "there is absolutely no indication of a terrorist" connection, police spokesman Wolfgang Beus said.

It seems to me that detonation of a nail bomb is an "indication" of a terrorist connection. Who else uses such things? If Beus doesn't think this is connected to terrorism, then who does he think is responsible?

Update: Tom responds, from Belgium:

when you think about "terrorism" I take it you are thinking "islamist = terrorism". This does not seem to be a case of such terrorism (although any nailbomb can only be intended to terrorize obviously). The spokesman for the Interior Ministry refused to rule out (islamist) terrorism, however most commentators in Germany speculate that it looks more like gangwarfare. Which islamist terrorist would throw a nailbomb (from a pushbike it seems) at a Turkish barbershop in a Turkish neighbourhood ? If only Al Qaeda was as amateuristic....

On the big picture, you are right that we have been far too complacent in Europe about Islamist terror cells, but things are changing rapidly now. Madrid has had a big effect and not a day goes by or islamists are rounded up somewhere in Europe, imams are expelled etc...

Speaking as an American, that's not very much. It's progress, I guess, but only in the sense that you have moved from "denial" to "making a deal": if we just crack down on cells, maybe it will be enough.

It won't be. It's a good first step, but the journey is a thousand steps.

Step 2 is to recognize that this is a war of aggression against you and the only way to protect yourselves in the long run is to get them before they get you. If you refuse to even try to get them then they will inevitably get you. It's only a matter of time.

The them you have to get aren't in Europe. (And I'm afraid they aren't here in America, either.) You can spend decades cleaning up terror cells within Europe, and them will spend those decades forming new ones. Eventually one of the cells won't get caught in time and you'll have another Madrid, or worse. You won't be safe until there's no them to create cells.

But that requires you to accept that there really is an us and there really is a them, and them are enemies who are trying to kill us and can't be talked out of it or bribed to go away and attack someone else (like Americans or Jews or Australians).

The second step on your journey is to accept that you are at war. War has come to you, whether you like it or not, and if you refuse to fight it, you'll lose. You are in a shooting war, and you cannot talk your way out of a shooting war. It is your war; you cannot avoid it. You didn't start it and you don't want it, but that no longer matters. You have an enemy in this shooting war, who is shooting at you because your enemy wants you dead. And your enemy won't stop shooting at you until you shoot at them – and hit them, and kill them.

You will not win this war by hunting for terror cells and expelling radical imams. All you'll do that way is to delay defeat. Your police cannot win this war for you. They'll try, but they'll ultimately fail. You cannot win this war inside Europe.

You sure as hell are not going to win this war with bureaucrats.

Step 3 is recognizing that you're going to need soldiers, and your soldiers are actually going to have to fight, and they'll have to do that fighting outside of Europe. Your soldiers will not win by engaging in peacekeeping. They can only win by engaging in warmaking.

You must send your soldiers to get them before they get you. Your soldiers must make war on your enemies, and must defeat those enemies, and must kill many of your enemies.

Once the them