WoinParis

Le Monde says 3 people died and 20 were injured when a man drove his car into the crowds and then attacked bystanders with a knife.
He got shot.
Paris, Brussels, Nice, London ... the list grows and grows.

hetismij2

Four dead, two on the bridge, a police officer stabbed by the attacker who was then shot dead.
Amongst the injured are three French teenagers on a school trip.
Several of the injured are very badly hurt.

Nowhere is safe, but that shouldn't deter people from visiting.

PalenQ

Nowhere is safe, but that shouldn't deter people from visiting.>

Yes and being safe- less likely to be involved in any terrorist attack anywhere than being run down crossing street or driving to and from your home airport. Everytime you drive on a street you are in more danger.

Not to trivialize the deaths in London - sad and those French high school kids seriously hurt on a trip to London from 'dangerous' Paris.

Christina

I don't think we should accept this kind of terrorism as the new normal or what's the big deal, which I think statements like that do (comparing it to traffic accidents, etc). I find those kind of remarks trivializing what is going on in the world by these terrorists.

Edward2005

These types of attacks were routine in London and Paris in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Only our narcissism makes us believe we're in some uniquely dangerous period.

yestravel

And before that many, many more including NYC, DC, Madrid, Istanbul, Mumbai, Berlin and on and on. It's been this way for quite a while now, don't you think? I agree it should not deter us from visiting. We'll be in UK in May with a week in London in June. We were in Paris within a week of the attacks in November. What a world...sad.

BritishCaicos

For the past 10 years, UK road deaths have been fairly consistent at 1700 per year.

That's 5 a day.

More than tonight's terror attack.

It's called terrorism for a reason .

It creates irrational terror.

Nikki

I arrived in London the day of the bombings July 7, 2005. The advice we got from all the Londoners we met was to go on with our plans, that they had a long history of dealing with such attacks and they wouldn't let it alter any of their activities. They were far more accustomed to such events than we were.

BritishCaicos

Christina

Sorry, I hadn't read your post.

Not trying to trivialise the issue just to put the risk into perspective.

Having said that, I posted here previously that we wouldn't visit Israel because of security fears. I would love to go but it's hard not to be irrational when you are taking an 11 year old.

Pepper_von_snoot

Thank you, Edward, for that.

People forget what the IRA did to London in the 70's.

Didn't see any nation banning Roman Catholics from bringing transistor radios or Ronson lighters on airplanes back then.

We are all governed by idiots.

Thin

MichaelAndrews

Actually, travelling is very safe. The chances of getting hurt or killed in a terrorist attack are smaller than getting killed in a crash of the airplane that actually takes you to your destination.

It is a terrible, disgusting act of murder but we can never let that win. Ever.

Travel and see the world and never be afraid.

BritishCaicos

We are letting them win by talking about it.

nukesafe

I disagree, BritishCaicos. Staying silent about such acts implies we either approve, are afraid, or, worse, indifferent. I think letting our absolute disgust at the act be known is a much more effective deterrent than not speaking out.

One thing we should do, though, is to look at history. Attacks such as this are nothing new. Historically radical people have been carrying out horrible attacks for a long time now. I ran across a brief list of some of the more prominent ones recently, but there have been many, many, more over the years.
http://listverse.com/2014/05/04/10-a...ked-the-world/

dwdvagamundo

We would let them win if we cancel plans to visit because of this and similar acts.

Agree with British Caicos and Michael that chances of getting killed or hurt are much higher driving to the airport than being hit a terrorist while in whatever city.

StCirq

How can you possiby stop people from talking about it? And why would you want to? I don't interpret talking about it as letting them win.

And there are plenty of safe places in the world, but if your travel plans involve driving to an airport and taking a plane, or major city-hopping on trains, or visiting major tourist sites, there's always some risk there. Still, nothing like everyday risks of things like driving an automobile.

bilboburgler

Catholic thing
Yep managed to get over most of that, eventually

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-C..._United_States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-C...United_Kingdom

Given the IRA managed to blow up themselves with alarm clocks and gelly the fear of the radio would not have been sensible. Even Guy Fawkes and his gang (RC terrorists) managed to half kill themselves by trying to dry gunpowder in front of the fire. However, since then this whole internety thing has come about, what was once tricky technology is now easy to read up on the internet.

sparkchaser

Three people, including a cop, were shot in Wisconsin yesterday.

PatrickLondon

This was an awful thing. But the fact of a single attacker (albeit capable of doing great damage with just a car and a knife) who, in all likelihood, knew how it would end for him, could itself be a sign that ISIS is on its way out: there may well be an upsurge of desperate individuals launching this sort of attack precisely because the parent organisation is being worn down by the loss of territory and income in the Middle East. Which is not to say there won't be another false prophet waiting in the wings, but it does mean we aren't facing all-out chaos.

PalenQ

Still, nothing like everyday risks of things like driving an automobile.>

Or crossing streets with wrong way traffic in London!

annhig

Would that you are correct, Patrick. The trouble is that there seems to be an almost endless supply of gullible fools willing to do the bidding of those who manipulate them. They tend to spawn copycats too, though why anyone would want a death like that is a mystery to me. Certainly their faceless bosses don't.

Having read about Tillerson's lack of nouse in matters diplomatic, and his inability to foresee the problems that are going to make Syria et al fertile recruiting grounds for ISIS and their ilk for many years to come unless money and sustained effort are put into creating stable countries, [like they weren't in Iraq] I am not optimistic.