Brussels, Balance and the things that we fear

Yesterday listening to the ABC's Fran Kelly's rather breathless coverage of the Brussels tragedy, I thought, my God, who would have thought that a group of fanatics could help us inflict so much damage on our own societies? I used the words "us" and "ours" with intent.

When I first wrote on the so-called War on Terror, one of my concerns was the the use of language, the way in which our framing of discussion might create the very things we fear. Brussels was not the London Blitz nor the fire bombing of Dresden nor the Rape of Nanking nor the Bosnian massacres. Yes, the deaths and injuries were tragic, yes, we have to do something about it, but we have to keep a sense of balance.

Now in terms of key performance indicators, let us look at what these groups have achieved. Among other things, they have:

• Forced an escalation in military spend
• Forced a reduction in civil liberties among western democracies, one of whose central tenets is the preservation of those civil liberties
• They have forced divisions in western societies, challenging inclusiveness and leading to the rise of right wing parties focused on exclusion. This includes facilitating the rise of Donald Trump in the US. 
• They have encouraged sectarian division, setting religious groups against each other
• They have brought key aspects of a major western institution, the European Union itself created as a consequence of war, injustice and genocide, to the point of collapse.

Congratulations, chaps. You really have done rather well, So long as you can keep the west reacting in the same way, you should be able to keep those KPIs rolling out. Who knows what you might achieve?