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Lessons: As US Debates Refugee Policy, Germany Suffers Three Attacks in Three Days
Townhall.com ^ | July 26, 2016 | Guy Benson

Posted on 07/26/2016 9:11:18 AM PDT by Kaslin

Some commentators are scratching their heads over how Donald Trump could have earned a polling bump out of Cleveland, in light of its various mishaps and controversies (which the Democrats are working to match and surpass) -- and especially after such a dark and foreboding acceptance speech. The reason we predicted he'd get that bounce is because the public mood is dark. We see that reality reflected in national polling week after week. And we see its roots and causes playing out in headlines across the globe. In Germany over this past weekend alone, there were three terrible attacks -- two of which were carried out by Syrian refugees:

(1) Machete Attack Against Pregnant Woman:

A 21-year-old Syrian refugee was arrested on Sunday after killing a pregnant woman with a machete in Germany, the fourth violent assault on civilians in western Europe in 10 days, though police said it did not appear linked to terrorism. The incident, however, may add to public unease surrounding Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door refugee policy that has seen over a million migrants enter Germany over the past year, many fleeing war in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. German police said they arrested the machete-wielding Syrian asylum-seeker after he killed a woman and injured two other people in the southwestern city of Reutlingen near Stuttgart...A 21-year-old Syrian refugee was arrested on Sunday after killing a pregnant woman with a machete in Germany, the fourth violent assault on civilians in western Europe in 10 days, though police said it did not appear linked to terrorism. The incident, however, may add to public unease surrounding Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door refugee policy that has seen over a million migrants enter Germany over the past year, many fleeing war in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. German police said they arrested the machete-wielding Syrian asylum-seeker after he killed a woman and injured two other people in the southwestern city of Reutlingen near Stuttgart...The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for both a July 18 ax attack by a 17-year-old refugee that injured five people near Nuremburg in southern Germany, and a July 14 attack in which a Tunisian man drove a truck into Bastille Day holiday crowds in the French city of Nice, killing 84 people.

(2) Bombing Targeting Music Festival:

The Syrian suicide bomber who injured 15 people in a Sunday night attack on a music festival in Ansbach, Germany, left behind a video pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said Monday. The ISIS-affiliated media group Amaq claimed the attacker was an ISIS "soldier" in a statement the group's supporters posted online Monday, but there is no evidence he was in contact with ISIS or directed to carry out an attack. In the video left on a mobile phone, the 27-year-old Syrian announced his threat to carry out an attack "as an act of revenge against Germans, because they obstruct Islam," Herrmann told a press conference. The man said the attack would be committed in the name of Allah as retaliation for the killing of Muslims. The bomber, who has not been named, was killed.

(3) Mass Shooting at Shopping Mall:

German police arrested a 16-year-old Afghan boy in Munich on Sunday after police found contradictions in statements the youth made to police earlier about his relationship with an 18-year-old German-Iranian, Ali David Sonboly, who shot and killed nine people in the city on Friday. “There is a suspicion that the 16-year-old is a possible tacit accomplice to [Friday’s] attack,” police said in a statement Sunday, reported by broadcaster Deutsche Welle. “We suspect that this boy aged 16 years could have been aware of the act.” The Afghan youth reportedly went to police voluntarily on Friday after the shooting by Sonboly. But police later came to believe that the Afghan boy may have been involved in posting a message on Facebook that the shooter used to lure victims to a shopping and cinema complex, thus giving rise to suspicions that he knew about the planned attack but failed to report it.

Germany has extremely restrictive gun laws, which have resulted in a flourishing black market awash in illegal firearms.  In any case, here at the DNC, Democrats are celebrating Hillary Clinton's proposal to massively increase the influx of Syrian refugees into the United States. With German Chancellor Angela Merkel under intense fire over the repercussions of her refugee policy, Clinton's party seems intent on framing (very widespread) public skepticism about refugee screening as backwards bigotry. It's true that the US government's vetting process is both improved and more robust than it is elsewhere. But do deliberately missed red flags like this, which contributed to the San Bernardino terrorist attack, inspire confidence? And are Americans supposed to be reassured by public statements from security officials like these?

The Obama administration is fighting a growing national backlash against accepting Syrian refugees, saying the government’s exhaustive screening process and security checks for new arrivals mean they can be safely brought to American soil. Several high-level administration officials have warned in recent months just how challenging this can be. While they say U.S. security measures are much better than in the past, vetting Syrian refugees poses a quandary: How do you screen people from a war-torn country that has few criminal and terrorist databases to check? “I don’t, obviously, put it past the likes of ISIL to infiltrate operatives among these refugees, so that’s a huge concern of ours,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said at a security industry conference in September, using another name for the Islamic State. He added that the government has “a pretty aggressive program” for screening refugees but that he is less confident about European nations. FBI Director James Comey added in congressional testimony last month that “a number of people who were of serious concern” slipped through the screening of Iraq War refugees, including two arrested on terrorism-related charges. “There’s no doubt that was the product of a less than excellent vetting,” he said...“If we don’t know much about somebody, there won’t be anything in our data,” he said. “I can’t sit here and offer anybody an absolute assurance that there’s no risk associated with this.”

Americans ought to demand a thoughtful and rational debate on these policies, with less demagoguery on both sides. The rhetoric in Cleveland and Philadelphia suggests that we're unlikely to get it.  And with leadership like this from the Demagogue-in-Chief, is that any surprise?

UPDATE - Two additional notes, via Leah and Cortney: A priest has been brutally murdered in a French church by ISIS terrorists, the latest Islamist horror on Western soil.  And in many hours of rhetoric last night, Democrats saw fit to mention the terror army (of the Obama/Clinton foreign policy's partial creation) zero times.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Germany; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: dncconvention; europeanmuslims; germany; globaljihad; isis; jihadineurope; nationalsecurity; syrianrefugees
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1 posted on 07/26/2016 9:11:18 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Dang! I didn’t know the machete killer was a woman!


2 posted on 07/26/2016 9:13:04 AM PDT by MNDude (God is not a Republican, but Satan is certainly a Democrat.)
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To: MNDude

never mind, I read it wrong.


3 posted on 07/26/2016 9:13:25 AM PDT by MNDude (God is not a Republican, but Satan is certainly a Democrat.)
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To: Kaslin
Some commentators are scratching their heads

Most of them can't even do that because they still have their heads up their a*s.

4 posted on 07/26/2016 9:14:05 AM PDT by Jim W N
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To: Kaslin

The public perception of disarray is reflected by the ‘right-track/wrong-track” polling numbers where about 2/3 of the country think we are on the wrong track.

When the public gets—and stays—in that perception then politicians and pundits ought to be wary of projecting their own views onto the electorate.

“We’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take this anymore.”


5 posted on 07/26/2016 9:16:32 AM PDT by wildbill (If you check behind the shower curtain for a slasher, and find one.... what's your plan?)
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To: Kaslin

I hate to be hard about this, but Germany can handle its own problems. They need to wise-up and get rid of the invaders.


6 posted on 07/26/2016 9:17:07 AM PDT by Jemian (War Eagle!)
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To: Kaslin

We have already housed thousands in the US, a lot of them literally hidden in location the libs are not talking about, by Obama. Where’s the discussion? Kind of hard to feed the animals in the barn if the door was pushed open and they ran away. It’s just as hard to talk about them whether you can do anything about it or not. Our conservative controlled congress couldn’t or didn’t when they were knocking on the door. What makes anyone think they’re any different than the 11M already here before the “refugees” started arriving?

red


7 posted on 07/26/2016 9:17:55 AM PDT by Redwood71
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To: Kaslin

Germans marched on the streets demanding muslim immigration.

Europeans in general have for decades scoffed at the “racists” from backwater hick white countries that dare to impose some sort of immigration control such as requiring immigrants to identify themselves.

Europeans are getting what they always wanted, open borders countries full of enriching immigrants.


8 posted on 07/26/2016 9:18:49 AM PDT by fluorescence
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To: fluorescence; Kaslin

Germany didn’t want Jews anywhere in Europe.

Germany does want Moslems everywhere in Europe.

How’s that working out for you Krauts?


9 posted on 07/26/2016 9:22:04 AM PDT by Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons the right to be free." A. E. van Vogt)
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To: Jemian

I think you’re missing the problem.

The German men have been brainwashed since birth that only Nazis fight and they need to welcome all immigrants. They don’t possess the mental toughness to fight for their country - or any country. They are sheep ready to be slaughtered.


10 posted on 07/26/2016 9:22:43 AM PDT by TigerClaws
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To: TigerClaws

An open invitation in Europe to those who want to destroy civilization.


11 posted on 07/26/2016 9:27:01 AM PDT by Sasparilla (Hillary for Prison 2016)
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To: fluorescence

Yep they are having their cultures enriched by Islam, as Obama tells us we in America are enriched.

Anyone else notice that the liberals say how Islam peacefully coexists with us, and their example is how Islam, Christianity, and Judaism coexisted in Spain hundreds of years ago? I believe it was in Granada, Spain, where this happened?

Off topic, but, its interesting that the liberals have to go back hundreds of years to find some example of Islamic peaceful coexistence within a diverse society.

Are there any places in the world today in which Islam peacefully coexists within a diverse society?? Any at all???


12 posted on 07/26/2016 9:29:27 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: Kaslin

I don’t mean to be flippant or disrespectful, but, have we reached a point where The new normal will be Muslim terror attacks on a regular basis? That we will see these attacks weekly or even daily, somewhere in the world?


13 posted on 07/26/2016 9:33:32 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: Kaslin

We’re not debating any policy, we’re having it imposed on us.


14 posted on 07/26/2016 9:34:09 AM PDT by VTenigma (The Democrat party is the party of the mathematically challenged)
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To: Jemian
"They need to wise-up and get rid of the invaders."

FIRST stop importing the invaders. Then get rid of the ones that are already there.

15 posted on 07/26/2016 9:40:47 AM PDT by Former Proud Canadian (Gold and silver are real money, everything else is a derivative.)
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To: Dilbert San Diego
"...their example is how Islam, Christianity, and Judaism coexisted in Spain hundreds of years ago..."

It was "peaceful" because the muslims had their foot on the necks of the christians and jews. The Spanish were so thrilled by the wonderful muslims that they fought for 700 years to toss them back out.

16 posted on 07/26/2016 9:41:13 AM PDT by Flag_This (You can't spell "treason" without the "O".)
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To: fluorescence
Do not be misled into accepting the narrative that most Europeans want to have their homelands over-populated with incongruous new arrivals. Most Europeans are simply intimidated by their own pseudo-intellectual betrayers' version of the "politically correct" fantasy that people are interchangeable--the same idiocy that drives the Clintons, Obamas and the like.

There, as here, are two groups that feed off that fantasy, and correspondingly manage to keep most other folk silent--intimidated and silent. One group are those business interests, which put immediate profit ahead of patriotism. The other group are the compulsion driven neurotics, who for one reason or another, simply cannot tolerate the realization that peoples, as individuals, differ;--that we are all unique, and should be respected for our particular unique qualities--not artificially mixed up in an effort to validate a Leftist/humanist pipe dream.

Because Donald Trump has defied the "politically correct" conventions, that were strangling analysis of real problems in Western countries; because of his rise in doing just that, there is now more hope for a Western reawakening than there has been in decades.

The ultimate issue, both here and in Europe, is whether we--the people of each nation--dare again to be unique; dare, again, to honor our heritages and the noble figures in our respective histories, who helped to develop the impressive cultures of our respective nations. Those cultures, now being trashed by crack-pots), reflect the respective but cumulative struggles of those nations, over the past twelve hundred or so years.

17 posted on 07/26/2016 9:43:46 AM PDT by Ohioan
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To: Former Proud Canadian

That advice should also be followed by us.


18 posted on 07/26/2016 9:43:51 AM PDT by Jemian (War Eagle!)
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To: Kaslin

Interesting that these “Lone Wolves” have such a massive support and supply line hidden behind their acts.


19 posted on 07/26/2016 9:52:15 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: Jemian
I meant to say that too. I have some advice for France:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3453150/posts?page=1#1

20 posted on 07/26/2016 9:56:13 AM PDT by Former Proud Canadian (Gold and silver are real money, everything else is a derivative.)
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