"The Brussels attack is Europe's new reality"

"As ISIS loses its state, it is shifting emphasis to terror attacks

The world of violent jihadism is a competitive one, and ISIS's greatest rival has always been al-Qaeda. Their antagonism has many roots, some going back decades, to the war in Afghanistan, but it is today expressed both as literal war in Syria, where they fight for territory, and as a broader but more abstract war of ideology, over which group can rightfully claim the mantle of jihadism's global vanguard...

"ISIS is a state that has millions of dollars that it can spend on these kinds of operations," McCants went on. "We're not talking about al-Qaeda hiding out in Pakistan. We're talking about an actual government that has money to put behind plots and has very motivated people, many of them with European passports that can carry them out.""

http://www.vox.com/2016/3/22/11284558/brussels-attack-europe-isis-terrorism

I am glad to understand this. Or, like, glad feels like an innapropriate word to use in this response, but I can't think of another. I am not emotionally made glad, but it feels useful in a way that is soothing.

It's strange being an American liberal and interacting with news about terrorist attacks in Western countries. Part of me is so involved in my anger about the post-9/11 politics that launched reactionary wars (and war crimes) and surveillance policies and this era of Islamophobia. In the absolutist world of American political rhetoric, condemning terrorism can feel like a validation of those Bush-era decisions. I think that's why you see so many things pop up about terrorism in non-Western countries, stuff that can be mourned and spoken about without violating American-Liberal sensibilities.

And beyond that, I don't know that I am really a part of this conversation, I don't know if there is anything productive for me to learn (much less contribute). My sadness and confusion about these attacks is not novel and I don't deserve any attention for it, and I am also averse to politicizing these deaths with my concerns about retaliatory prejudices.

I want to figure out how to process my own reactions fully, including the fears that my political identity stigmatizes, and support victims in a non-political manner. And I am full of questions of "Why?" and "What next?".

So I am glad that this article explained ISIS's motivations and some of the context of their decision-making outside if the hand-waving of "Anti-Western Jihadism".