After Belgian police had a high-profile bust of terror suspects a few days ago, jihadis seem to have retaliated this morning, bombing the Brussels airport and the downtown subway station not far from key EU capital buildings.
The death toll seems to be far smaller (23 is the rough-draft figure) than the rash of attacks in Paris last year, but is symbolic in that it's in the EU's capital. That gives all the folks in charge of the EU pause going forward, as this would be a bit too close to home. It will also give anti-immigration forces more ammunition to both block new arrivals and to give the eagle-eye (or worse) to the ones that are in their midsts.
It hits mass transit at its weak points. The airport bombing was in the departures area, before you would get to serious screening. One of the Paris bombings happened at a checkpoint as a bomber was flagged by security outside the soccer stadium and went kaboom in a use-it-or-lose-it effort.
That kind of terror will discourage folks from travelling and discourage them from travelling to the EU's capital. Brussels was noted as a prime jihadi hangout, but not as much as a prime target. A weakened EU with a more hostile populous would help the jihadi cause, as suspicious maltreatment of Muslims in Europe will be a good recruiting tool and a more enraged European population will draw NATO into a more hands-on approach, giving ISIS more foes to shoot at in their home turf.
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