A Threatened Nation

Yesterday’s newspaper: an article about the dangers The Netherlands are facing due to possible terrorist attacks. Today’s newspaper: the Minister of Interior Affairs (who deals with state security) was not aware of these threats and had to read about it in the media. This might say something about our government, the communication within the government or between the government and the security agencies, but it gives a clear signal that something is wrong. When I talk to my European friends I usually say that The Netherlands is one of the best places to live. Not because of the weather of course, but because of the social and political climate. We are a liberal country with a lot of freedom and possibilities for everyone and quite frankly: not many countries can say so as well. Just to give an example: we are being criticised for our drug policies, but we have one of the lowest addiction percentages in Europe. We have one of the highest welfare standards in Europe and one of the lowest unemployment percentages. I can therefore say: Holland Rocks!
Now my lovely small country is threatened by terrorists. It doesn’t make sense to me: we are so liberal, we allow Muslims to practice their religion without any restrictions, we build Mosques for them, and we even allow party meeting of the Grey Wolves (which Turkey doesn’t like that much). Hundreds of millions of Euros flow to Third World countries every year for development (we pay the most of all developed countries!) and still terrorists want to attack us? It makes really no sense, as we haven’t been the aggressor since we fought in Indonesia. We contribute soldiers to most of the UN Peacekeeping missions and always condemn human rights violations. What good reason would terrorists have to attack us? In my opinion: none! A terrorist attack would only make the situation in The Netherlands worse and would not do the terrorists’ case any good. We would fear and look different to our Muslim fellow countrymen; we would stop development projects and withdraw our troops from several missions. Attacking The Netherlands would not do any good. If terrorists would really want to achieve something, than they should kill as many US soldiers in Iraq or bomb US civilian targets 1 or 2 days before the US elections. That way they would make sure that Bush will not be re-elected and Kerry would withdraw a lot of US troops. Just leave The Netherlands alone!