The brutal events last week in Paris serve as a potent reminder that terrorism remains a threat to our lives and values.
At least four home-grown radicals were involved in incidents that began when two brothers attacked the satirical magazine that mocked the Prophet Muhammad. One day later, a policewoman was killed, and a day after that, the four took hostages at two locations. At presstime, the brothers and another terrorist were killed, and another suspected to be on the run. At least three hostages were killed.
The two brothers were known to US and French intelligence. One was jailed in 2005 for trying to go to Iraq to fight Americans, but they kept a low profile, apparently prompting France to reduce surveillance to save money. One brother traveled to Yemen in 2011 for al-Qaida training.
They are unlikely to be the last, given hundreds of Europeans fought alongside radicals in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen before returning home. And it's only a matter of time before such incidents occur in the United States, where powerful personal weapons are more plentiful. Experts are surprised that hasn't already happened.
The attacks were deadly, but don't appear to have stifled their main target. Charlie Hebdo was vaulted to the world stage and the slogan "Je suis Charlie" — French for "I am Charlie" — became a global show of solidarity with the magazine and free speech. Instead of its normal run of 60,000 copies, 1 million copies will be printed this week.
In that sense, the terrorists failed, just like the North Koreans who attacked Sony to stop a movie that satirized the nation's leader.
Still, it's time to learn valuable lessons from last week's events to prevent future attacks. Renewed vigilance, better cooperation and enough money for the job are imperative.
In this case, as too often in the past, men who repeatedly demonstrated nefarious intent managed to slip through the cracks. Terrorism is a persistent and adaptive threat. This time it was with assault weapons; in the future, it may be with weapons of mass destruction.
