Phil Taylor's papers
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BACK TO : PROPAGANDA AND THE GWOT Year 3 - 2004 (mainly Iraq)
EU, US differ on how to fight terrorism by Tom Regan 
EU, US differ on how to fight terrorism Europeans don't see terror fight as an all-consuming 'war.' by Tom Regan | csmonitor.com Europe and the US are taking different paths when it comes to fighting the war on terrorism, The Washington Post reports. Earlier this month, US President George Bush described the war on terrorism as "not a figure of speech" but "an inescapable calling of our generation." But across the Atlantic, Javier Solana, foreign policy chief for the European Union, the man responsible for overseeing Europe's counterterrorism efforts, was taking a completely different approach. "Europe is not at war," Mr. Solana told a German newspaper. "We have to energetically oppose terrorism, but we must not change the way we live." At an EU summit that ended Friday, leaders announced new measures to fight terrorism, but even the attacks in Madrid on March 11 have not led to a fundamental shift, writes the Post. Nor has it led to "transatlantic unity" in the terror war, as an increasingly large number of Europeans see the war in Iraq as a problem when it comes to fighting terrorism. "What Bush calls the war against terrorism is the war which Bush chose to wage in Iraq," said Francois Heisbourg, director of the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris. "And that war has become massively unpopular in Europe. People see it here as aggravating terrorism, not fighting it." The Sunday Herald of Scotland reports Europeans' feelings that the war in Iraq has hindered the war on terrorism have only been increased by the recent remarks of former top officials in the Bush White House, in particular former counterterrorism chief, Richard Clarke. Mr. Clarke has said that the Bush administration's "obsession with Iraq" has hindered the war on terror. But Charles Krauthammer writes that if Europe retreats from Iraq (as Spain has said it will do, and as others EU nations have hinted at), it will just repeat the appeasement of the 1930's. Europeans also see US "inability or unwillingness" to forcefully promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians as a problem that creates more terrorism. "You wouldn't do away with worldwide terrorism if you resolved it [the Israeli-Palestinian issue], but you'd reduce the breeding ground for extremism in the Middle East," said Volker Perthes of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. British foreign minister Jack Straw also called last week for Europe to recognize the "risk of division" that some of these issues were causing in Europe. Saying that "all civilized countries have an interest in fighting terrorism", he stressed that "unity doesn't mean we cannot have a lively debate about questions such as the military action which we took in Iraq." During the EU two-day summit, the Herald Sun of Australia reports, the EU decided not to create a CIA-style agency but to do more intelligence-sharing, cut funding to extremists and adopt an all-for-one solidarity clause. It also appointed Dutch deputy interior minister Gijs de Vries as the counterterrorism co-ordinator. He will report to Solana. Mr. de Vries, a US-born Dutch liberal, may seem an unusual choice for the post, says Time magazine, as he is a "well known as a defender of privacy and civil rights." But de Vries (who some critics say faces a "near impossible task") joined other European leaders, like European Commission leader Romano Prodi, in calling for several states in Europe to ratify measures taken after 9/11 in the US in order to enact measures, like a Europe-wide search warrant, and the retention of records to enable security forces to track mobile phone calls and e-mails. "It is important that they make sure that commitments entered into are implemented because, frankly, we don't need more literature. We don't need more paper. We need action," he told the BBC. American critics of the European model says it will do nothing to stop the war on terror. Ariel Cohen, of the conservative Heritage Foundation, writes in Tech Central Station that the European answer to terrorism is just to create more "bureaucracy." Otto Schilly, the German Interior Minister and one of the toughest European terror fighters, has warned that historic and operational differences between European security services and intelligence agencies will prevent effective information sharing. Small countries' services are woefully underfunded. And Jason McCue, a British lawyer and counterterrorism expert writes in the Guardian that it is more important than ever for Europeans to realize that the war on "neo-terrorism" terror has three fronts: technological (an arms and intelligence race over security), financial, and the ideological battle waged through the mass media. And it will be this final one that will actually make the difference in the long run. It will not be the military or the police that finishes al-Qaeda but the spin doctors, the media and the public. We must encourage our leaders to use their heads rather than their might. We must reveal terrorists for what they are: an opportunist ramshackle group of bloodthirsty extremists. We must tackle ignorance, poverty and injustice but we must do so on contemporary battlefields. These are no longer simply liberal ideals; they are essential weapons in the war on neo-terror. Finally, a recent five-country (Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Germany) survey of Western European adults shows few dislike Americans or the United States but most dislike President Bush and his foreign policies. Only 13 percent of those surveyed had negative opinions about the American people, and 33 percent had negative views of America (although they show a strong dislike of the American justice and governmental systems). But fully 70 percent have negative opinions of Bush; 69 percent have negative opinions of US policies in Iraq, and 62 percent have negative opinions of American foreign policy since 2000, when Bush came to power. The poll was conducted by Harris Interactive and its European subsidiary HI Europe. |