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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elsewhere who wrote (32370)	6/15/2002 10:10:15 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Jochen, When I discuss Europeans signing a "pact" with terrorism, I'm referring to the political leadership, not the people... In my opinion, and based upon the views of folks who have worked in Europe on the issue, before 9/11 European leaders had payed "lip service" to dealing with terrorism, fearing a backlash of violence against themselves reminescent of the '70s and '80s.. European support for the Palestinians, despite the obvious and blatant terrorist methods against civilians that Arafat has advocated (openly or privately), is also an example of this "pact". Europeans are more hostage to the "oil weapon" than is the US, and your leaders know it. Thus, they are loath to oppose extremist Arab views. Furthermore, you're geographically closer to the mid-east, and a greater percentage of your populations are muslim than in the US. Thus, a fear of creating political backlash on the domestic front. But I certainly do not mean to imply that the average European citizen has signed such a "pact".. However, in some nations, particularly France, which has seen more than its share of terrorism, I believe the people are less inclined to support irritating those groups which use their nation as a staging and training ground for attacks against the US. And btw, I have the same beef with the Canadian government, as indicated by their excessively lax immigration laws. The US has strict immigration laws... We were just too incompetent to enforce them. And once more, my opinion of European leaders is based upon pre-9/11 policies. Hawk