Stupid European philosophy

The Dallas Morning News published an editorial (not available online) by Charles Stinnott of the Boston Globe that tried to portray the "new" way that Spain deals with terrorism as the right way. Suffice it to say that it's the old way of dealing with terrorism - in court. Stinnott quotes Europeans as being uncomfortable with the word "war".

"For America to keep using the phrase 'war on terror' reflects a deep misunderstanding of the threat we face," said Mr. Aristequi, whose father, also a diplomat, was killed in Lebanon by Syrian shelling during the civil war.
"Calling what we face a 'war on terror'," he added, "is a semantic trap that legitimizes a criminal element as a group worthy of....being a force with which we can engage in war. We need to have language that reflects the reality, and the reality is we need to close the faucet of good guys going into the pool of bad guys."

This is silly talk. Terrorists have no interest in being "legitimized". Refusing to use the "semantics" of war simply disguises the real conflict and provides a false sense of safety to the citizens of Europe. Can you imagine al Zarqawi or bin Laden sitting around discussing what they should do now that "the law" is going to come after them? It's so completely ludicrous that it's hard to imagine that intelligent people can think that way.

Europeans, who have been "fighting" terrorism with the courts for over 40 years now have not accomplished a thing. Has terrorism lessened? No, it's grown exponentially. The Europeans have lost over 5000 people in that period of time. Islamo-facism has spread throughout the world. Is this what they define as success?

Here's how the Spaniards dealt with the tragic loss of almost 200 people in the train bombings.

The differences between the United States and Europe were evident in the aftermath of the two attacks: While Americans rallied around the flag, Spaniards chose a less political symbol.
At public vigils, millions of Spaniards held up hands painted white, a symbol that for a decade has been used to protest Basque terrorism--making the point that those with clean hands outnumber and will defeat those whose hands are stained with blood.

I'm sure those "clean hands" just terrify the terrorists. (It's worked so well, they've been using it for a decade!)

Until Europe gets serious about terrorism, they will continue to suffer the loss of their citizens lives. America, however, has a choice. We can continue the path that Bush has led us down - hunt down the terrorists and kill them, destroy their financial networks and pressure countries who support them to stop doing so, or we can go down the path that John Kerry wants to lead us on - cooperating with Europe, using the courts to try terrorists and hope that they decide not to kill us.

Some of Europe still believes in the old way. So does John Kerry. I don't. I'm sick and tired of burying our military and our citizens after bombing attacks that we do nothing about - the Marine barracks in Lebanon, the USS Cole, two US embassies in Africa, Charles Stinson, Leon Klinghoeffer, the PanAm flight over Locherbie, Scotland, and on and on and on and on.

We're tried the European way. It doesn't work.