Demanding Allies
    Le Monde | Editorial

    Thursday 22 June 2006

    Since the shock of September 11, 2001 - a real declaration of war by al-Qaeda on the United States - Americans and Europeans have been fighting together against Osama bin Laden's organization and the jihadists who are inspired by it. Determination in the anti-terrorist fight is rarely found wanting in either Washington or European capitals, and cooperation between secret services is tight. In this war, the enemy of the "free world," as American president George Bush likes to call it, has been identified: warrior jihadism. The objective is clear: its eradication.

    Americans and Europeans diverge, however, on two critical points. The first is the method used in the "war against terrorism." The United States has decided to liberate itself from international law and the laws of war. It's opened a prison in Guantanamo where detainees don't have "prisoner-of-war" status; it has disappeared suspects into secret CIA prisons and refused defendants - including the September 11 planners - trial in good and due form; finally, the US has renounced its own values by tolerating its Army's commission of war crimes by using torture. The second point is the war in Iraq, a country where a tyrant who had no ties to al-Qaeda reigned. In fact, the United States has opened a front there that is a playground for jihadists.

    Before the opening of the Vienna Summit on Wednesday, June 21, European Commission president Jos Manuel Barroso summarized Europe's fears by declaring to the International Herald Tribune that the West ran the risk of "losing its soul" in the "war against terrorism." Mr. Bush answered by asserting that "for Europeans, the September 11 attacks were an episode, while for Americans, they constituted a turning point." He added that he "would like" to close Guantanamo, but cannot ...

    Americans and Europeans should have a care. With respect to Iraq as with respect to the anti-terrorist struggle, their divisions serve the common enemy - for whom this is a fight to the death. Americans must return to the path of international law. Without cradling any illusions about the necessities of shadow warfare, it is vital not to fight with the enemy's weapons when one professes to desire to promote peace and democracy. Europeans must, as demanding allies, continue to accompany the United States in combat against al-Qaeda, but obtain the closing of Guantanamo, the image of which has created more jihadists in the world than any bin Laden speech. But they must never lose sight of the objective: the eradication of al-Qaeda and its affiliated movements, which, on their side, are subject to neither doubt nor division.