Americans still defending allies on European soil

World War I was a century ago, and this wasn't trench warfare. But maybe it's not too much of a stretch to call Friday's incident aboard a Brussels-to-Paris train a latter-day Allied victory on the Western Front. And it was the selfless courage of three Americans that brought it about.

The threat this time didn't come from our foes of early 20th century Europe, but a more familiar contemporary evil, Islamic State terrorism. A suspect later identified as Ayoub El-khazzani, on a terror watch list and suspected of ISIL sympathies, apparently had boarded the train with an AK-47, a pistol, a box cutter and nine clips of ammunition. (He told French authorities he had "found" the weapons in a park in Brussels. Maybe that happens a lot in Europe.)

There's no way to tell how many lives among the more than 500 people aboard the train were saved, but luck was definitely with them. U.S. Airman First Class Spencer Stone, of Sacramento; his friend Anthony Sadler, a college student; and Oregon National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos were on the train, and one of the Americans reported hearing "the sound of a heavy weapon being loaded" while he was passing a bathroom. When the man came out of the bathroom carrying the weapons, they jumped him and disarmed him, though not before he fired a few shots -- reportedly wounding one passenger in the neck -- and cutting Stone's hand and neck with the box cutter as the airman held him in a choke-hold. A British passenger later identified as Chris Norman came to the Americans' aid and helped hold the attacker while he was being tied.

Initial reports tentatively identified the Americans as Marines. That later proved to be inaccurate, but a Marine spokesman in Stuttgart, Germany, got to the heart of the matter: "Unarmed men took down an armed assailant. They saved lives today. It doesn't matter who they were, that's heroic action."

Think it through

Denver City Council reportedly is considering denial of a Chick-fil-A franchise in the city airport, due to the company's image vis-à-vis same-sex marriage, etc.

City officials should rethink whether they really want to go there.

Everybody knows the "issue" -- President Dan Cathy's support of the "biblical definition" of marriage (a debatable interpretation, but that's beside the point here), his public objection to court rulings on gay rights, etc.

Unless the Denver City Council -- and by logical extension, any comparable decision-making body -- wants to find itself in the politically (and legally) precarious position of publicly judging the First Amendment-protected views of every key executive doing business with the city, the path of least resistance might be the wise course here.

This story was originally published August 24, 2015 at 4:46 PM with the headline "Americans still defending allies on European soil."