Airstrip One

The danger of moving targets

A rather interesting article on War, Extradition and the Atlantic Alliance (second part is here). Basically it bemoans Europe's uptight attitude on the death penalty and the way it hampers the war on terror.

The problem is that the war on terror has not focussed on the terror and instead concentrated on the war. This doesn't just mean that war aims are extending indefinately (although they are) but also that the law enforcement aspect is lacking.

This has meant that Bin Laden hasn't been found (or if he has it's being kept quiet to keep the war going). It also means that Europe has been pressured to sign up to irrelevant UN declarations while comparitively little pressure has been laid on European countries to extradite Mohamedan agitators either to the US or back to their home countries.

It has also meant that critics of the war can (wrongly) state that by focussing on Iraq we have let Al Qaeda slip through the net and commit the Bali bombing. Of course the war in Iraq has nothing to do with the War on Terror. The war on Iraq is about ensuring Israel's future place in the Middle East by keeping her strategic superiority. The war on terror is about dismantling Al Qaeda - essentially a law enforcement problem. The problem is that to ensure support they have been muddled up.

Now the war critics are using the same logic that the war supporters were using.