A THOUGHT FOR NOW - AVOID USING HUMAN TRAGEDIES FOR POLITICAL GAINS.

People need the support of togetherness when they are encountering great adversity.

How, then, can it be that, while France and the people of Nice, in particular, mourn their great and tragic loss of lives, some politicians can use this tragedy score political points?

Take Marine Le Pen, eg, with her exhortation that France has the where withal to end these atrocious acts. Would it not be great is this was really the case, and, might we not have expected that Hollande's government would have known about and implement this brilliant and guaranteed strategy for winning the fight against these miscreants?

So, is Marine Le Pen simply being reckless, dishonest, and/or engaging in wishful thinking, when she should know that what she has said is easier said than can be implemented?  Does she really imagine that, "double punishment" and deporting people to their countries of origins is going to stop these atrocities being committed, when all it takes, is for one mad and/or evil person to be successful?

The idea that France, in common all other countries, will ever be able to permanently stop mad and evil people from killing and maiming their innocent citizens, is simply not a tenable one. No country can remain at the relevant level of total alertness which such an endeavour would warrant.

Instead, the response to outrages such as Nice, is for France to come together, as she did after Charlie Hebdo, and review and learn from them, both individually and collective, and put in place appropriate and proportional measures to reduce the likelihood of any repeat.

I also do not think that it is helpful for people, especially politicians, governments and 'experts',  to talk about 'the evolving nature of the threat', apparently referring to'terror threat, as if there is some master planner/s or strategist/s, beavering away trying to come up with ways of making war against the west and their democratic values. The fact is that it is extremely, if not impossible to prevent all mad and evil people from perpetrating outrages against ordinary people, using whatever means they can find to do so.

I am not sure that it is accurate or helpful for every outrage to be analysed and automatically attributed to Daesh/IS. To do so is, arguably, simply playing their game and probably giving them more credence than is there's.

So, politicians, I am aware of the fact that opportunism and expediency is your trademark, but, do avoid trying to make pointless capital from the human tragedies which France and other countries - such as Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, et al - are experiencing, sometimes on a daily basis.  These are times when people need to remain calm, evaluate what has happened, learn from it and plan and work together to reduce the chances of any repeat.

If these outrages are wrongly analyses, the responses are therefore likely to be inappropriate, and could also become counter-productive.

It will take time to heal, but the bereaved need to have that self-belief and stay strong and focused on that desire.