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July 20, 2004 I got many reactions on my latest column concerning President Bush's isolationist policy. Some people draw my attention to mistakes in the language used. I admit, I don't write English perfectly always. Expressing your thoughts in a language that's not your mother tongue remains difficult. Most of the people try to get into discussion with me about my arguments used. There's nothing against a thorough discussion, but I don't think it's fair when I'm accused of saying things I haven't said at all. Therefore, once again a column about my personal thinking process as far as the war against terrorism is concerned. This time, let's look into whatīs wrong with European policy. What to do about the threat of terror? Do European leaders have a beginning of an idea that works? Unfortunately, no. Madrid has been a terrifying example of Al Queda's destructive power on our continent. What's going on at the moment, is that all European governments try to analyse the current threat for their own country in the first place and act to that on their own. They do not try to co-operate as one front. Attempts are being made, but such political processes go very slow. Confusion is what comes out of it. To give you an example: Dutch government has warned for possible terrorist attacks in The Netherlands two weeks ago. Nobody knows how serious this threat is. Where do people have to watch out for? We donīt know. Personally, I would get very scared should I have to consider every Muslim I meet as a potential terrorist. Why doesnīt my government tell me what I have to do, otherwise then giving the general statement 'be alert'? Alert on what, whom? To make it even more crazy, Belgian government says there's no higher risk of terrorist attacks at all. The Netherlands is bounded on the South by Belgium, there's free transport of goods and persons without any control by the Customs... Europe should act as one front against the Al Qaida threat in the first place, and not as 25 different countries. How to make that clear to our leaders? I donīt know. Their egos are too large. Osama can't be found by the Americans, the USA and Europe argue about the best method of fighting terrorism. Europe itself is divided about the danger of the threat. Al Qaeda is the laughing third party. ------------ About the author: Johan Peters is a freelance journalist from Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He has a great interest in international politics, is not anti-American, but has the meaning things are going totally wrong since the Bush administration has entered the White House. He's glad he can state this meaning in all freedom, also with thanks to the Americans of long ago. See for more information about me my site www.johanpeters.net (partly in English). Email Johan Peters: johan.peters@johanpeters.net Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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