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Keeping this column entertaining as well as relevant and timely has always been my primary objective. Happily I don't have to adhere to any one topic. Sometimes I write about politics, sometimes pop culture, or history, while other times the column might focus on current news events. I enjoy alternating between funny stuff and somewhat more serious subject matter.
Last week my column was devoted to honoring our fallen veterans on Memorial Day. Since that was a sober subject, the intention was to lighten things up this week with a bit of humor. Sorry to say, that isn't happening. It isn't easy to write a funny column after what happened in Manchester, England this past week.
The terrorist bomber who blew himself up at the Ariana Grande concert killing 22 people and seriously injuring over a hundred others including young children will find that hell has a special place for evil bastards like him. Once again the West has been attacked by radical Islamic butchers.
The scenes on our television screens are all too familiar. First comes the carnage, the panic, and the ambulances, then in the days that follow, the flowers, balloons and teddy bears laid out at the sites where the innocents were murdered. This has been going on much too long. The steady drip, drip, drip of terrorist attacks on the West erodes our way of life and keeps us on edge. For the terrorists, that's exactly the point.
Authorities seem to know where potential Islamist troublemakers live and congregate in Western European cities. Why aren't they rounded up BEFORE they kill? Good question.
The entire Western world is under attack by these radicals. Here at home, four big ones occurred during the Obama presidency; Fort Hood in 2009, the Boston Marathon in 2013, San Bernadino in 2015, and Orlando in 2016. But Europe is the on the frontlines, and has been for years. Some past European attacks, as reported by the Associated Press include:
April 7, 2017
A man driving a hijacked beer truck struck pedestrians at a Stockholm department store, killing 4 people.
March 22, 2017
A man drives his rented SUV into pedestrians at London's Westminster Bridge, killing four people. The attacker then stabbed a police officer to death.
Dec. 19, 2016
A hijacked truck plows through a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12.
July 14, 2016
A truck driver targets Bastille Day revelers in Nice, killing 86.
March 22, 2016
Suicide attacks on the Brussels airport and subway kill 32 and injure hundreds. The perpetrators have been closely linked to the group that carried out earlier attacks in Paris.
Nov. 13, 2015
Islamic State-linked extremists attack the Bataclan concert hall and other sites across Paris, killing 130 people. A key suspect in the attack, 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, is arrested in Brussels on March 18, 2016.
Feb. 14, 2015
A gunman kills Danish filmmaker Finn Noergaard and wounds three police officers in Copenhagen. A day later the gunman, Omar El-Hussein, attacks a synagogue, killing a Jewish guard and wounding two police officers before being shot dead.
Jan. 7-9, 2015
A gun assault on the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and an attack on a kosher grocery store kills 17 people. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula claims responsibility for the attack, saying it was in revenge for Charlie Hebdo's depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.
May 24, 2014
Four people are killed at the Jewish Museum in Brussels by an intruder linked to the Islamic State group in Syria.
May 22, 2013
Two al-Qaida-inspired extremists run down British soldier Lee Rigby in a London street, then stab and hack him to death.
March 2012
A gunman claiming links to al-Qaida kills three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi and three paratroopers in Toulouse, southern France.
March 2, 2011
Islamic extremist Arid Uka shoots dead two U.S. airmen and injures two others at Frankfurt airport.
July 7, 2005
52 commuters are killed in London when four al Qaida-inspired suicide bombers blow themselves up on three subway trains and a bus.
March 11, 2004
Bombs on four Madrid commuter trains in the morning rush hour kill 191 people.
President Trump labeled the terrorists "evil losers" in his comments following the Manchester attack. There aren't enough negative adjectives in the world to describe these cowardly immoral monsters.
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JWR contributor Greg Crosby, former creative head for Walt Disney publications, has written thousands of comics, hundreds of children's books, dozens of essays, and a letter to his congressman. He's been a JWR contributor since 1999.