Just when you thought the West could not be more craven in the face of threats from Islamist terrorists, there’s news that the Dutch ministry of defense advised its soldiers not to wear their uniforms in public.
“We advised military personnel not to travel in uniform on public transport,” Marloes Visser, the defense ministry spokeswoman, told AFP.
And what led to the issuing of this sage advice from the Netherlands’ defense ministry? A series of threatening tweets from the Dutch jihadist known as Muhajiri Shaam, a member of the Islamist terrorist group Jahbat-al Nusra. Al-Nusra is an al-Qaeda affiliate.
As explained in an article by Timon Dias published by the Gatestone Institute, Shaam tweeted: “So, now Dutch F-16’s. Dutch people: your government just made you a target.” And, then, even scarier, Shaam tweeted:
The West offered more than 90 million lives during the first and second World War for their self-glorified democracy. So the Ummah must be prepared to sacrifice even more lives for a righteous State which rules under the laws of Allah. The world has suffered the oppressive darkness of Western capitalism for long enough. It’s time they get a taste of divine justice.
According to Defense News, Shaam, speaking in Dutch, called in an online video for jihadists to “stand up and carry out a strong, firm act against the Dutch state” for “supporting the United States.” Shaam said he made the video in Aleppo.
Run for the hills! The tweets and video are so scary that of course the Dutch defense ministry would recommend that their soldiers hide under civilian garb. That way, maybe no one will know they are Dutch officers!
Dutch counter-terrorism chief Dick Schoof said the decision was taken “as a precautionary measure.” He said, “it will stop drawing the attention of people who think ‘that’s someone I can attack.’”
Ah yes, better the bad guys should just attack Dutch civilians, that’s the ticket!
What is this world coming to? When tweets from scary men are enough to make military officers shed their uniforms and hope no one notices that they are supposed to be defending their nation’s civilians from the bad guys, what is next?
This is not to suggest that the evil Islamist terrorists are not a very scary bunch, but would it not make more sense for the military to double down and scare the living daylights out of the bad guys, rather than show their yellow streak to enemies and friends alike?