Bombings in Beirut. Russian passenger plane blown out of the sky. The Paris attacks. And the website of Daesh says other countries, including the U.S., will smell of death.

I watch European news, specifically France 24 and Deutsche Welle, and shortly after the Paris attacks they invited on European security "experts" who say that Europe has to live with the new normal. There's nothing they can do now to stop future attacks at amusement locations, like concert venues and restaurants. Of course, the left vilifies the right for mentioning that Europe has no conceal-carry law. And Europe is a long way from that. 

But I don't believe they have to live with the new normal. 

Here is one way to reduce the number of attacks.

NATO's Article Five says:

The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area ....

The key phrase says, "including the use of armed forces." President Hollande called the attacks an acte de guerre or act of war. Is he going to rely only on air strikes? Of course, Europeans are loath to put boots on the ground, and air strikes, though garnering publicity once in a while, won't root Daesh out of their spider holes. 

The French ambassador to Germany said on Deutsche Welle that he appreciates Germany's offer to use German Special Forces. However, they and American and French Special Forces won't be enough either. 

It is now clear that the only way to stop the terrorist attacks from increasing in Europe and elsewhere is to put a large coalition of troops on the ground to clean out the rat's nest called Daesh in northern Iraq and southern Syria. The operation will have to be take one town at a time. Apparently the Kurds successfully did this to militant-controlled towns. We did this in Afghanistan and Iraq, and no terrorist attack has originated from there (other than the Daesh-controlled territory). Will Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf States send troops, or are they nervous about attacking fellow Sunnis?

And does Europe have the heart for it? Or will it capitulate and accept the new normal?

James Arlandson has written a supernatural historical fiction about his ancestor and the seventeenth-century real founding of America, William Clayton.  His website is Live as Free People, which is updated almost daily.