WE'RE JACKSONIAN; THEY'RE CHAMBERLAINIAN:

Europe Knows Fear, but This Time It's Different (ALAN RIDING, 3/14/04, NY Times)

After the murderous bombings in Madrid on Thursday, Spanish newspapers immediately compared 11-M - March 11 - to 9/11. But there was a flaw in the analogy. On Sept. 11, 2001, the United States was caught off guard. In contrast, Spain and several other European countries have experienced terrorism for more than three decades. And lately they had been bracing for a big terrorist action somewhere in the region.

Despite this, many Europeans, although not all governments, have so far resisted the American call for an all-out "war on terrorism." To some, that looks like the overreaction of a nation unaccustomed to terrorism on its own territory. For the critics, the slogan has been misused - to alienate the Islamic world, to undermine civil liberties, to justify invading Iraq and to promote President Bush's re-election campaign.

Now, after the murder of close to 200 people and the injuring of 1,400 more in Madrid's train bombings, fresh questions are being asked: Will European attitudes toward terrorism harden? Will Europe recognize that its cities are as vulnerable as New York and Washington were on 9/11 and Madrid was on 11-M? Will it too start reorganizing its security services to confront a new enlarged threat?

The quick answer, many European security experts say, is "perhaps"...

By this point after 9-11, Walter Russull Mead was astutely writing the following, which no one will be writing of the Euros any time soon, Braced for Jacksonian Ruthlessness (Walter Russell Mead, September 17, 2001, Washington Post):

The terrorists who attacked the United States last Tuesday have made the gravest blunder any human being possibly could commit. They have trampled out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; they soon will find that they have loosed the fateful lightning of a terrible, swift sword.

It hasn't lately been fashionable to say so, but when their blood is up, Americans are the fiercest warriors on earth.

Consider that the question in Europe is not whether they'll do something about Islamicism themselves, but whether they'll give us rhetorical support while we deal with the problem.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 14, 2004 8:46 AM