Why fiends focused on Europe

THE terror attacks we just witnessed in Spain and Finland aren’t the “new normal.” Terrorism is inherently abnormal. But it is the new norm.

With the caliphate in collapse in the Middle East, these low-cost/high-payoff attacks loom ever larger for ISIS and other terror franchises: They keep the message alive and grab global publicity.

Attacks on tourist centers, whether with vehicles or other at-hand weapons, aren’t just targets of opportunity, either. There’s strategy in play. Consider all that terrorists achieve through these massacres: Economic damage: Beyond the grisly body-counts and injuries, such attacks hit local economies. Unemployment remains high in Spain and, although locals complain of tourist hordes, one worker in five in the Barcelona area holds a tourist-related job. Multinational slaughter: Strike a popular tourist zone and you don’t just harm one nationality. In Barcelona, up to 34 nationalities suffered deaths or wounds. Spread the hurt, spread the headlines, and the pain is international. Punishing the immoral: These tourist zones have bars, music, nightclubs and, horror of horrors, men and women mixing in public. Easy for Islamist fanatics to justify their atrocities. Never underestimate the satisfaction religious fanatics feel from punishing those who enjoy life.

These attacks won’t stop. This isn’t really about us. It’s a result of the comprehensive collapse of the civilization of the greater Middle East everywhere outside of Israel. And the situation is worsening, not improving.

This is, indeed, the clash of civilizations. Islamist terror is an excretion of a dying world. And we are hated for being robustly alive.