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Photo by Ketevan Kardava, / AP

The death toll in 2016 was less than in 2015. (Parisians alone endured worse in 2015.) And a backlash may well be taking shape, to the detriment of pro-immigration politicans, peaceful immigrants and asylum-seekers and millions of European-born Muslims. If anything, it’s remarkable the backlash hasn’t gathered more steam.

It’s frightening and frustrating enough that ISIL can inspire European-born idiots like Abballa and the Bakraoui brothers to take up arms against their fellow citizens. When you add the massive uncontrolled flow of refugees and economic migrants over land and water, you have all the traditional ingredients for unpredictable, reactionary unrest.

Amri is reportedly a failed asylum-seeker from Tunisia whom Germany had tried and failed to deport; until this week Tunisia disputed his citizenship. Daleel was a Syrian asylum-seeker whom Germany had tried and failed to deport to Bulgaria, where he had originally registered as a refugee. Ahmadzai was a refugee of uncertain age, possibly from Pakistan, but who reportedly said he was Afghan in hopes of a better shot at asylum. It’s an unholy mess.

“Which country has security under control?” a Berliner wearing a Santa hat asked an NPR reporter at the reopened Christmas market this week. It was a rhetorical question; none do, really, and fatalism is the only practical option. “Next time it will be a plane or a train, and that’s how it is,” the woman said. “If a commuter train had blown up, people would still have to ride the train.”