February 1, 2003
THE ASSES' ASPS:
The Qaeda Vipers in Europe's Bosom (Jonathan Stevenson, February 1, 2003, NY Times)Make no mistake: the United States is still Al Qaeda's main enemy. But it's become morbidly obvious in the last few months, with terrorist attacks in Indonesia and Kenya, that Al Qaeda has expanded its "fields of jihad." That development should be a particular cause of concern for Europe, where much of the planning of the Sept. 11 attacks was done and where perhaps thousands of Al Qaeda affiliates live. Just this week, the Italian police arrested 28 Pakistanis suspected of links to Al Qaeda.It is no surprise that the 15 million Muslims in the European Union should be ripe for recruitment by Al Qaeda. They live on the margins of European society, socially, economically and politically. More than 100 British Muslims joined the Taliban in Afghanistan to try to repel American and allied forces, and up to 3,000 British Muslims have undergone military training at terrorist camps in Afghanistan since 1996. Radical clerics preach war against the West in Europe's mosques. European citizens like Richard C. Reid of Britain, who just received a life sentence for trying to ignite a bomb in his shoes on a trans-Atlantic flight, and Zacarias Moussaoui of France, described by prosecutors as the would-be 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks, were converts to militant Islam.
For the sake of the United States, Europe needs to tackle the root causes that make young Muslims resort to terrorism. But it needs to act to protect itself as well. So far, there have been no Al Qaeda attacks carried out in Europe, but officials say they have thwarted several plots. Over the last six weeks, the police in France, Spain and Britain, as well as Italy, have arrested more than 50 terrorism suspects, some in possession of the deadly poison ricin, disrupting what was apparently a Qaeda network. is senior fellow for counterterrorism at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
The irony of the current Franco-German opposition to the war on Middle East radicalism is that as soon as either country, or both, suffers its first 9-11, it will likely be we who have to restrain them from conducting mere reprisals. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 1, 2003 6:59 AM
But who are they going to take reprisals against? Their business partners in the Middle East, who owe them tens of billions? Or the Israelis, whom they blame for inflaming the terrorists?
The only thing I'm sure of is that they'll blame us for any terror attacks they suffer. "If Bush hadn't been a warmonger they wouldn't have done this to us . . ."
Reprisals? Its going to be "rounding up the usual suspects" unless the local terroristas cross the line of blowing up local civilians. Like what happens in Italy fairly regularly.
Posted by: Tom Roberts at February 1, 2003 8:52 AMIf history is any guide--and it almost always is--you'd have to expect them to take it out on their own populations.
Posted by: oj at February 1, 2003 9:08 AMOJ: Oh, I dunno. I don't doubt they'll turn on their own populations; but I agree with M. Steyn when he says that the French will leave Baghdad a smoking crater if al Qaeda attacks on France can at all be traced to Iraq.
Posted by: Christopher Badeaux at February 1, 2003 1:44 PMFrance attack someone? They haven't done that since Napolean.
Posted by: bartman at February 1, 2003 7:29 PMFrench civilians have already been attacked by Islamist terrorists. In the 90's they suffered a series of bomb attacks in stores by terrorists. The terrorists contested France's policy towards Algeria - France supported the Algerian government in its struggle against the Islamofascists who almost assumed control. The French didn't buckle - they continued to support the Algerian government even as they tried to catch the terrorists.
Posted by: Peter Caress at February 1, 2003 7:58 PMFrance actually has a vigorous record of
attacking Moslems. Not very effectively. It
took over a century to subdue, more or less,
North Africa, and they were still working on the
Moroccans as late as 1930.
I'm all for reprisals.