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Brussels-Style Attacks Wouldn't Happen if EU, Russia Allied Against Terror

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It's well past the time for Europe to join forces with Russia in the fight against terrorism, says former Slovakian Prime Minister Jan Carnogursky. The ex-politician argues that if Europe had supported Syria and Russia's war against terrorism from the beginning, attacks like last week's jihadist assault on Brussels would not have taken place.

Last week's attacks on Brussels, killing dozens and injuring hundreds more, "partially paralyzed" the capital of the European Union, Carnogursky wrote, in an editorial for Slovak conservative news and political analysis website Konzervativny Dennik Posoj.

"A similar attack took place in November in Paris, and before that, in London and Madrid. Federica Mogherini, the EU's minister of foreign affairs, reacted with tears before the microphone. This was the best indicator of the EU's strength."

Syrian government's head of delegation, Bashar al-Jaafari attends a news conference after a meeting on Syria at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 21, 2016 - Sputnik International
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"Responsibility for the attack was taken by the Islamic State, the same 'State' which our NATO ally Turkey provided with financial support, weapons and [which] allowed fighters to flow across its borders."

"The terrorists in Brussels," Carnogursky noted, "had their base in the [city's] Molenbeek district, whose population is 90% migrants from Africa and the Middle East."

The former Christian Democratic Movement chairman recalled that one television image out of Brussels, even before the attacks, stuck out in his mind. A group of Swedish journalists "wanted to enter the Molenbeek district with a camera as journalists and, just as white Europeans…There was a Belgian police patrol on the street, which told the journalists not to go into the area, since the police could not guarantee their safety."

"In spite of this, the journalists attempted to enter the area, and right in front of the police local residents started throwing whatever they could get their hands on, pushing and shoving, all while the police patrol looked on. The journalists never did manage to enter the migrant area – and this is Western Europe – the European Union. And this is something our mainstream media wants to see [in Slovakia] as well."

"After Brussels," Carnogursky suggested, "we have to take a step forward. Just as 25 years ago it was necessary to get rid of communism, today it is necessary to at least think about making fundamental changes in our internal and foreign policy. Otherwise we will one day find ourselves in the same place where Western European countries are today."

FILE - In this photo released on April 25, 2015, by a militant website, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, young boys known as the lion cubs hold rifles and Islamic State group flags as they exercise at a training camp in Tal Afar, near Mosul, northern Iraq - Sputnik International
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On the domestic front, the former politician noted, police must be given the benefit of the doubt in their work to fight crime, including in minority neighborhoods. But the foreign policy factor, he believes, may be even more important. In Carnogursky's view, the answer is quite simple.

"ISIL has taken responsibility for the Brussels attacks. Russia is the country fighting against ISIL more effectively than anyone. The United States has been bombing the group for two years, and it only served to see the terrorists capture more territory. Russia bombed ISIL for less than six months, and now Syria has witnessed a turning point in the war."

"ISIL is losing territory and fighters. Syrian President Assad's armies, together with the Kurds, will soon be able to surround the terrorists and deal with them in the same way that they have with their captives. It remains necessary to recapture the narrow strip of land through which they receive weapons and fighters from Turkey, and through which they ship their stolen Syrian oil."

Ultimately, Carnogursky argues, "if the European Union had, from the very beginning, supported Russia and President Assad, today ISIL could have been defeated already, and there would be no one left to carry out the attacks in Brussels."

Broken windows of the terminal at Brussels national airport are seen during a ceremony following bomb attacks in Brussels metro and Belgium's National airport of Zaventem, Belgium, March 23, 2016 - Sputnik International
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"However, the European Union, as an obedient pug of the United States, was turned against Russia instead, and received its reward in Brussels."

"And although Slovakia has pulled on the leash on which America holds us, we don't do so too strongly. Our army could not even defend Bratislava, if we faced a similar terrorist attack. Washington holds Europe, Slovakia included, in its fist through NATO. And how exactly is NATO helping us against terrorism?"

"The time will come for Slovakia to leave NATO. Until then, let's at least work to prevent the alliance from strengthening itself on our territory, from the Tatra to the Dunabe. Now, and in the future, we need an ally which will help us by smash our common enemy. That ally is Russia. So let's look for rapprochement with Russia, in any area where that may be possible. Then the terrorists will fear us more than they fear Belgium today."

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