TGIF

Seriously... Thank the GODS it's Friday. Gah... What a week. But then, it's a week closer to finishing this bloody degree, so I'm happy about that.

Okay. A few little things, and some thoughts and a few links:

I bought the International Herald Tribune, which is basically a partner paper to the New York Times and several well respected papers in Europe. I've always LOVED the IHT. It's a brilliant newspaper, it's short, it's concise, and it actually covers WORLD news! How much more can you ask? The Internet link for this wonderful paper is:
http://www.iht.com

The headlines, and most of the editorials covered the recent events of London, and the main thrust of the front page seemed to be the journalists attempting to deal with the fact that the suicide bombers were actually British Citizens. Key Facts: BBC.

One article discusses the rather frightening fact that although the U.S. is probably the main Great Satan to the Islamic fundamentalists, Europe is facing a different sort of threat than the U.S.

From IHT Article by Richard Bernstein:
...But so far, at least, the United States has only been targeted by outsiders - like the Al Qaeda-trained group that carried out the Sept. 11 operation, or the suicide bombers that are hitting American troops, and many others, in Iraq. Despite the presence of many millions of Muslims in the United States, there is no sign of any threat coming from within.
 
Europe is different; it is ever more clear that Europe is what terrorist experts like to call both a terror base and a terror target. The leaders of the 9/11 commando team were long-term residents of Hamburg before they set off on their mission in the United States. The two so-called shoe-bombers caught plotting to blow up planes in midair are British citizens. The man in the Netherlands who confessed to the assassination of the filmmaker Theo van Gogh is a Dutch national of Moroccan origin.
 
"There is strong evidence that Al Qaeda operatives in Europe are, increasingly, local citizens, rather than non-EU nationals," Daniel Keohane, a terrorism expert at the Centre for European Reform, observed in an article published two months before the London bombings...

What this article says, and the issues that it raises is something for Europeans to really think about. What is it about Europe's society that seems to foster the fundamentalism that is becoming rampant in the West. What is different about the American Society, in that America does not SEEM to have the home-grown extremism in it's society? I capitalise "seem" as we really don't know for certain whether or not there are home-grown terrorists in the States, we just rather hope not.

If the U.S. is at "war" and Europe continues to treat this as a "political intrigue" then I fear for Europe. Perhaps "war" is not really the term for what's happening in the world, but thinking of the issues between the West and the Islamic fundamentalists as being simply "political" then I believe Europe will suffer the consequences.

I'm not happy about my president's actions in the past few years since 9/11. However... Burying our heads in the sand, and hoping that the problems will go away is stupid, short-sighted, and frankly... Frightening.

Finally... To prove to my European friends JUST how insane America is (and my home state of Minnesota INCLUDED) I give this final link. I may speak about Islamic Fundamentalism as being a scourge to society... But the fact of the matter is... There is also a bit of Christian Fundamentalism that I think poses AS big a threat in the long-run for world peace, as any other form of extremism. City Pages, Jim Walsh - Onward Christian Soldiers

On that depressing note... I'm off for the weekend. Slànte - and PEACE to you all!

-- Tucker