There is a price to be paid for fighting terrorism — a price the people of too many nations, including our own, have paid in recent days.
This isn’t the first time Turkey has been the victim of terrorism. Two earlier attacks, both blamed on ISIS, the most like suspect here, have targeted tourist areas of Istanbul. But the vast international airport in Istanbul has been among the most secure in the world, likely second only to Tel Aviv in its number of checkpoints.
That security likely saved many more lives yesterday, even as three suicide bombers attacked at those outer security checkpoints. Dozens of people were reported dead, another 60 injured and once again a nation grieves and the civilized world grieves with it.
“Our long summer of discontent has just begun,” a senior U.S. intelligence official told NBC News.
This particular act of terrorism was indeed exceedingly well-timed — intended no doubt to make an already jittery traveling public even more nervous at the height of the summer tourist season.
But the attack also comes during a week in which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made two significant moves to restore fractured relationships with Israel and with Russia. Just Sunday, Ankara reached agreement to resume full diplomatic relations with Israel after six years of estrangement. Monday, Erdogan issued a letter apologizing to Russia for downing a jet near its border with Syria.
It should have been a good week for Erdogan, who has spent too much time in recent days grabbing for power and losing sight of how best to drive his nation’s economic growth. This week he began to bring Turkey back into a family of nations that despite their differences remains united in the fight against the singular evil of our times — the kind of evil that targets the innocent among us.
There is no compromise with that kind of evil. There is only fighting it — together — in the same way we share the grief at our losses.
— The Boston Herald,
June 29
