President completely missed the point in relation to Belgian massacre

Islamic State is relatively new to the terrorist game. Brutal it may be, but already it is light years ahead of others in the darkly encrypted world of cyber technology.

The mayhem a few small cells of true believers can cause (even if that belief is merely a corrupt or an especially militant form of Saudi inspired Islam) should give us pause for thought.

My thought for the day is that our president, Michael D. Higgins, completely missed the point last week with his ill-judged comments about the Belgian massacre by Islamists.

He referred to the Brussels atrocity as an attack on civilians.

In trying to protect the image of our own unmandated insurgents of 1916, he seemed to be implying that an attack on the police or the army would be okay.

Or at lest less reprehensible!

Islamic State didn’t take long to enlighten him (and the rest of us) that its true aim is much more comprehensive.

Not only attacks on civilians but on the whole infrastructure of western society. It even claims that it specifically aims to target Jewish kindergarten schools as an upping of the ante after another group (allied to Al Qaida) murdered those Christrians celebrating Easter in a park in Lahore.

Richard Dowling

Patrick Street

Mountrath

Co Laois