Europe is at war

Nice of UPI to finally notice.

Watch how the UPI try and make you feel good about the probable outcome of this war.

In numerical terms, the odds are stacked against the extremists -- even in France, which has more than 5 million Muslims, intelligence services estimate there are no more than 9,000 potentially dangerous Islamic fundamentalists.

Well, I for one certainly feel better knowing that France alone has "9,000 potentially dangerous Islamic fundamentalists". How many are there in europe all together then?

Most Europeans are uncomfortable with the idea of fighting a "war on terror," having lived with it for decades in the form of the Irish Republican Army in Britain and Ireland, ETA in Spain, the Baader-Meinhof gang in Germany and so on. They see the term as a nebulous construct, dreamed up by the Bush administration to justify the invasion of Iraq and keep Americans in state of perpetual fear.

Er, so what exactly was the justification for liberating Afghanistan, which by the way came before Iraq?

That state of perpetual fear has prevented any more attacks on American soil since 9/11 and I bet there are a lot of people in London that wish their government had done as much.

For years, Europeans have seen al-Qaida and its associates as a foreign threat that could be wiped out at source in the mountains of Afghanistan...

Yeah, so long as it was the Americans and British that were doing the fighting and the europeans could try and stop them at every turn.

Are you ready for some big time denial from UPI? Here you go.

But news that the London bombers were British born and bred and are unlikely to have had close links to known terrorist groupings has been described by U.K. police chiefs as a "nightmare scenario."

UPI seems to have missed the al Qaeda connection. Probably because they buy into the BBC's "The Power of Nightmares" nonsense that this is all just a myth. Be sure to read the Police confirm al Qaeda connection.

Until last year's deadly explosions in central Madrid, there was a tendency to see Europe as somehow immune to jihad terror.

Would that be because Europe and Britain are terror central?

The authors reveal that a Nixon Center database tracked 373 mujahedin operating in the West from 1993 through 2004. Broken down by nationality, the Washington-based think-tank found more Britons than Yemenis, Sudanese, Emiratis, Lebanese or Libyans and twice as many Frenchmen as Saudis.

See?

If Europeans knew more about the number of foiled terrorist attacks since Sept. 11, 2001, they may take the threat posed by Islamic cells more seriously. According to evidence given to the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on International Relations in April by Brussels-based counter-terrorism expert Claude Moniquet, 20 major terrorist attacks have been averted in Europe since then.

But, but, but you just told us that the war on terror was "dreamed up by the Bush administration to justify the invasion of Iraq and keep Americans in state of perpetual fear". Now you're telling us that Bush was right all along and that despite the BBC's assertion that this is all just a myth, there were "20 major terrorist attacks have been averted in Europe since" 9/11!!!

I must say that gives one reason to pause. The UPI admitting that they and the BBC are wrong and Bush is right. Simply amazing.

According to Moniquet, even since the Madrid bombings, attacks have been prevented against a Jewish school in Antwerp and the inauguration ceremony of a high-speed train tunnel in the same Belgian city, against Spain's National Audience -- the highest judicial body in the country -- against European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, against several outspoken Dutch politicians, the Parliament building in The Hague and Amsterdam's Schiphol airport and against Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi while he was visiting Germany.

In Britain alone, eight terrorist attacks have been foiled over the past five years, the country's former top police chief revealed Sunday. And according to U.K. Home Office figures, EU governments have made more than 1,000 terrorist-related arrests since 2001 -- including 700 in Britain.

This is not war in the traditional sense of the word, but by anybody's definition it is a major, ongoing conflict that has already claimed hundreds of lives in Europe and is likely to claim many more in the years to come. The longer Europeans are in denial about this uncomfortable fact, the longer the struggle will continue and the more innocent lives will be lost.

Aw, don't worry about it. Just get out your copy of "F 9/11" and "The Power of Nightmares", watch them repeatedly and, oh yeah, buy a copy of the Koran, you're going to need it.
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