- FPI’s Kirchick: The Berlin Christmas market attack and the likely political backlash
Stephen F. Hayes writes: Obama's single-minded pursuit of one legacy-defining accomplishment, the Iran deal, ensures that his legacy will be forever blackened by the tragedy of Syria. His presidency will be remembered as a time when America brushed aside its responsibility as a leader, ignored its responsibility to our fellow human beings, and turned a blind eye to the atrocities in Aleppo and elsewhere. – Weekly Standard
Cliff May writes: An estimated 500,000 dead, 11 million displaced, millions more living in fear, sorrow and pitiful poverty, Iranian forces backed by Russian forces occupying the heart of the Arab world — yet no-drama Mr. Obama remains so casual, so confident that the decisions he’s made were “the best” and, what’s more, that he made them “consistently.” Is refusing to change one’s mind as conditions worsen and policies fail really a virtue? – Washington Times
Two days after their city suffered one of the most devastating terrorist attacks in recent German history, Berliners were going about their lives with a business-as-usual air. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Searching the cab of the tractor-trailer that plowed through a Christmas market in Berlin, the authorities made two startling discoveries: a badly bruised body with stab and gunshot wounds, and the wallet of a Tunisian labeled a security threat who was supposed to have been deported months ago.ck, as Europeans faced the prospect of a holiday season with the “violent and armed” Tunisian still at large. – New York Times
Anis Amri, a Tunisian migrant whom authorities previously investigated for suspected terror ties and tried to deport, became Germany’s most wanted man as the new prime suspect in the capital’s deadly truck attack. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Police forces in Germany and across Europe accelerated efforts Thursday to track and catch 24-year old suspect in this week’s Berlin Christmas market attack, as Europeans faced the prospect of a holiday season with the “violent and armed” Tunisian still at large. – Washington Post
German authorities are offering a reward of up to 100,000 euros ($105,000) for information leading to the arrest of a Tunisian man suspected of involvement in the Berlin Christmas-market attack, identifying him as 24-year-old Anis Amri. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
While German authorities continue to hunt for a suspect in the attack that killed 12 people and wounded dozens in Berlin on Monday, details about the victims are emerging. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
She faced down a euro crisis that turned into an existential crossroads for the European Union. She confronted a Russian land grab in Ukraine. Virtually alone among her peers, she welcomed into her country roughly a million migrants who flooded across Europe’s borders. – New York Times
Five days after Donald Trump became the next president of the United States, the South Munich chapter of Germany’s far-right party, Alternative for Deutschland, held its first meeting since the U.S. election. In a traditional Bavarian tavern on a quiet residential street, 50-some party members and supporters drank beer and celebrated the victory that they felt was, in many ways, their own. – Politico
FPI’s James Kirchick writes: Monday's devastating terrorist attack at a Berlin Christmas Market was bleakly inevitable. With their wooden stalls, sickly sweet Glühwein, and fairground spirit, Christmas markets are a beloved German tradition. … Unfortunately, this mixture of nominally Christian iconography, crowded public venue and lax security also renders Christmas markets the perfect target for Muslim jihadists, from whose endless legions the culprit behind this latest outrage appears to have hailed. – New York Daily News
Andrew C. McCarthy writes: It is not just a matter of weeding out the trained jihadists from among the tens of thousands of refugees the Obama administration has already admitted, and the 110,000 more refugees for whose admission in 2017 the president has paved the way. The real problem is the thousands of assimilation-resistant refugees who will gravitate to and reinforce Islamist communities. They could form the breeding grounds and sanctuaries for the jihadists of tomorrow. – National Review
Matthias Matthijs writes: Giving Merkel the mantle of moral leadership is based on a misreading of her past 11 years in office. It assumes that Merkel’s three coalitions in Germany and her active steering of the European Union have been unqualified successes. They have not. Rather, supporters of the liberal order should root for an alternative coalition to take shape during next year’s German elections, expected in September 2017, which excludes both Merkel and her Christian Democrats from government. – Foreign Policy