Sunday, Sep 7, 2008
At an emergency meeting, European leaders back a "targeted" campaign against terrorism and applaud Bush's new internationalism.
Sep 22, 2001 | Just in case there were any doubts that Europeans are united behind President Bush and his anti-terrorism coalition, more proof came Friday night, when the 15 leaders of the European Union gathered in Brussels for an emergency meeting, and announced that they had lined up as one behind a range of counter-terrorism measures in support of U.S. efforts.
The internationalist tone of Bush's speech to a joint session of Congress Thursday night no doubt helped his cause. The loss of so many thousands of lives from dozens of countries in the World Trade Center attack has Europe determined to take tough action along with the United States. That applies even to the leaders of the generally pacifist Nordic states.
"Solidarity, that is important, that we stand united for democracy and open society," said the Swedish prime minister, Goeran Persson. "We have a very strong mandate to take military action and if the United States does so, they have our support."
There is still evidence that European leaders are worried about a too-aggressive military response by the U.S. Their statement emphasized the need for "targeted" military action that is planned within the larger context of diplomatic and political initiatives. Many would also prefer to see action taken under the auspices of the United Nations, which the Bush administration has so far not embraced. Qualms remain about the American appetite for revenge getting out of hand, and military action spiraling out of control with it.
But the Europeans' resolve to back the United States in its time of need has never been at issue, and even the minor-chord concerns about tactics quieted noticeably after Bush's speech Thursday night. The United States does not at this point appear to want extensive military involvement from other countries. British, French and German special forces are all likely to see action, for example, but the number of soldiers involved figures to be small.
So each of the 15 countries will help militarily "according to its means," the leaders said in a declaration. But they also lined up to support the pledge Bush made early in the crisis: that this would be a fight both against terrorists and the countries that aid them, saying that the targets could be "states abetting, supporting or harboring terrorists."
The leaders endorsed 37 concrete measures to bolster their effectiveness in fighting terrorism by improving police and intelligence across borders, developing a European search and arrest warrant that will let suspects in one country be perused by all 15 states, closing legal loopholes that let suspected terrorists elude capture, agreeing on a common list of terrorist organizations, and other strategies.
Like some of their American counterparts, many European critics of Bush have been pleasantly surprised to see a new, more confident Bush suddenly emerging as a statesman and a multilateralist. Bush has learned that when it comes to reaching out to allies, often small gestures count for a lot. The decision to have British Prime Minister Tony Blair seated next to first lady Laura Bush during the speech was one such gesture. More importantly, the speech hit the emotional high points most everyone agreed it needed to, but it also showed a deeply reasonable side that was just what the Europeans needed to hear. There was nuance and perspective there, just the qualities whose absence characterized Bush's early dealings with Europe.
"There was a sense of relief after the speech," said Jochen Buchsteiner, foreign editor of the influential Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, summing up the reaction of German and European politicians and journalists. "In a way you could say his speech was a slap in the face to biased anti-Americanism. This was not the Texas cowboy talking about a showdown, but a president talking about 'patient justice.'"
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