Salut!

Where the Belgians went wrong before the Brussels attacks

The Molenbeek bar - beer, hard liquor and drugs - run by the devout Abdeslam brother until shortly before they set off to murder infidels in Paris

First and foremost, we have to recognise that there is a thin line between success and failure in preventing terrorist attacks. It does not take a genius to work out how difficult it is to guard against all possibilities. The man arrested in the Parisian suburb of Argenteuil last night, with a formidable arsenal of weapons and explosives stored in his flat, may have been within hours of killing a lot of people. Even as I write, others will be plotting carnage in France, Belgium and elsewhere in Europe and beyond and we can but hope the security people get to them before they get to us.

That said, the Belgians authorities have not covered themselves in glory in the period leading up to Tuesday's murderous bombings. That errors were made has now been acknowledged. Even since the following piece was sent to The National*, it has emerged that the Americans had the El Bakraoui brothers on a list of terrorist suspects. It is simply not good enough to say, as the Belgian justice minister did of his country's failure to act when Ibrahim Bakraoui was deported following his arrest on Turkish-Syrian border last year, that he was just a common law criminal with no known terrorist involvement. The crossover between criminality and jihadism is there for all to see ...

'It was bound to happen': Brussels attacks analysed

From RTBF: two suicide bombers in black, both killed, with a third who escaped and is being sought

Some observers are saying the attacks on the airport and a city centre Metro station in Brussels airport were revenge for the capture of one of the gang of Paris attackers, Salah Abdeslam. Others suggest bombings were already planned but brought forward in case Abdeslam began to give the authorities information on terror suspects at large and the operations they might be planning. In truth we do not yet know, save to say that the planning for some kind of atrocity almost certainly began some time before Abdeslam's arrest.

ISIL, with nothing to offer humanity, needs no excuse to take any opportunity to do what it does most often - kill. Its contempt for human life extends to the brainwashed and fanatical who serve as suicide bombers or commit crimes in which their own lives are certain to end, too. Here are some of my initial thoughts* on Tuesday's vile attacks ...

Minding our language: let Trump speak freely, the US electorate vote wisely

Maybe Donald Trump does want to make America great again, as opposed to making it a great place for racists, redneck mass killers and ruffians who curiously resemble the Taliban. No, thought not. But his odious rhetoric raises issues about freedom of speech that are worth discussing. Here are some thoughts of mine ...

Most western countries proudly proclaim a long-held attachment to freedom of expression.

Underpinning the virtue of allowing people to say and write broadly what they wish is the bold statement inaccurately attributed to the 18th century French philosopher Voltaire: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

Although these were not Voltaire own words but a biographer’s interpretation of his outlook, the noble thoughts will forever be associated with his name. It is echoed in the children’s adage, “sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me".

Cuba comes in from the cold

A piece for the business pages of The National* following my recent visit to Cuba. A companion article, quoting one couple's experiences of the very slow changes for ordinary people even as the country's rapprochement with the United States gathers pace, appears at http://www.francesalut.com/2016/03/cubas-rapprochement-with-the-usa-whats-it-like-for-ordinary-cubans.html....

As Cuba finally shrugs off the vestiges of Cold War isolation and prepares for its first visit in 88 years from a serving United States president, the potential for long-overdue business expansion becomes increasingly clear.

The Caribbean island is one of the world’s last Communist countries.

But while its president, Raul Castro, insists it will never abandon its core values, he seems determined to shake off the politics of defiance he once pursued as enthusiastically as his better-known brother and predecessor, Fidel, the leader of the revolution that ousted Fulgencio Batista’s regime in 1959.

The thaw in US-Cuban relations is gathering momentum and delivers eye-catching new initiatives almost weekly.

Recent breakthroughs include agreement on 20 daily flights from US airports to the island’s capital, Havana, a ferry link from Florida, further exceptions to the American trade embargo, plans for a US factory to make tractors and Barack Obama’s blueprint, as he prepares to visit Cuba this month, for closing the Guantanamo Bay detention centre for terrorist suspects.

Cuba's rapprochement with the USA: what's it like for ordinary Cubans?

Here is the accompanying piece, more or less a case study, to my item on Cuba's march towards a post-revolution, post-embargo, post-Cold War place in the world ...

Fidel Castro, the Marxist-­Leninist revolutionary leader who symbolises Cuba’s decades of defiance in the face of a neighbouring superpower, famously once said he found capitalism repugnant, filthy, gross and ­alienating, the cause of “war, hypocrisy and competition".

If the quotation betrays little scope for middle ground, Fidel’s younger brother Raul, who succeeded him in 2008 as the president of the Caribbean’s largest island, seems determined to find some on behalf of a younger generation restless for progress.

What Islamic State does with children

This a piece I wrote for The National and it appears online at http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle-east/isil-training-children-to-be-soldiers-bombers-and-executioners-on-unprecedented-scale . My thanks to Nikita Malik, co-author of the report, for her help ...

ISIL is systematically training children on an “unprecedented scale" as frontline soldiers, suicide bombers, executioners and spies, according to research to be presented to the UK parliament on Wednesday March 9.

The Quilliam Foundation, a British counterextremism think tank, detects a strategy to use young children and teenagers as props of the self-styled caliphate’s governing apparatus and as a propaganda tool.

Donald Trump and the US Taliban he represents

I can think of very few Americans I have met and come to dislike. The USA is a country I have enjoyed visiting and I have plenty of American friends and acquaintances. I've even been to Texas. Perhaps I have just encountered very few of those who could be described as the US Taliban. I am thinking, of course, of people who are a combination of narrow-minded, puritanical, racist, intolerant, gun-loving and, let's not beat about the Bush, downright thick. As well as resisting sensible controls on private possession of lethal weapons, they support such monstrosities as Ku Klux Klan. Step forward one of the presidential contenders ...