United Press International,
BRUSSELS: Europeans and Americans are supposed to be fighting shoulder to shoulder in the so-called war on terror. But how can they beat their common enemy when they have such radically different interpretations of the scale of the threat posed by Jihadi terrorism and the nature of the response needed to defeat it?
This question was left lingering at the end of two recent conferences in Brussels on international terrorism — one organized by the Royal Institute for International Relations in Belgium and the other by the Italian International Affairs Institute, in association with the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Ever since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks the Bush administration has viewed the struggle against terrorist groups like the Taliban and al-Qaida as a war that can be won in the mountains of the Hindu Kush and the deserts of the Sunni triangle. Europeans, on the other hand, remain deeply uncomfortable with the term “war on terror,” with many asking how it is possible to wage war on an abstract noun.
“The United States talks of a war against terror,” said one senior European Union official at the GMF conference. “We don't subscribe to that view in the European Union.” Speaking at the same event, which observed 'Chatham House' rules of anonymity, a NATO official said the 26-member military bloc also preferred to talk about the “fight against terror.”
It is more than a semantic issue. The Bush administration — and many ordinary Americans — see their country “at war” with terrorism, and argues trenchantly that U.S. troops in Iraq are part of this effort. There is no such feeling in Europe, partly because European nations have lived with terrorist attacks on their soil for decades, if not centuries.
“The European Union sees terrorism through the prism of the past, the United States as a new threat,” said one participant at the Italian institute's meeting, adding that the two transatlantic powers are divided over both the nature of the threat faced and the best means of tackling it.
A country that sees itself at war is more likely to take extreme measures to protect its population, even if this leads to an erosion of civil liberties such as the right to privacy, free speech and a fair trial. Gerhart Baum, a prominent German human rights lawyer and former interior minister, told the Belgian institute's conference last month that the United States had “crossed the border between criminal law and war law” in its fight against Jihadi terrorism, resulting in the sanctioning of torture and targeted assassinations.
“The fight against terrorism should be compatible with human rights, but clearly it is not (in this case),” said Baum.
Calls from traditionally pro-American EU leaders, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, for the United States to close its internment camp at Guantanamo Bay highlight the gaping divide between Washington and European capitals when it comes to finding the right balance between using state power against terrorist groups and protecting civil liberties.
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