April 14, 2004
All together now: Up yours, Osama!
Those of us who remain Europhiles have to hope that the EU can get its act together quickly to repudiate Osama's proffered "truce." It would be nice to hear first from the Spanish Socialists.
Update Well, that was quick: The EU (via the President of the EC), Spain, Britain, Germany, and, yes, France all said "No" within hours.
Now I'm waiting to hear from the Europhobes.
Second update Josh Marshall wants to know why this is worth paying attention to. Patrick Nielsen Hayden agrees.
Answer: Because splitting off Europe from the U.S. is obviously an al-Qaeda objective, and not obviously infeasible. Undeniably, there is a strand of European opinion that thinks that Islamist terrorism is a problem due to Israeli and American policies, and that if Europe disowned those policies it could free itself from danger.
It's good news that the European governments aren't playing. And those Americans who have spent the past three years coming up with inventive new insults directed at Europeans ought to acknowledge that.
