University Times

The day after terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the French newspaper Le Monde published an editorial that pointedly echoed John F. Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech of 1963.

"Now, we are all Americans," declared Le Monde, stating that free people everywhere stand with the United States in its war against terrorism.

For a left-of-center, Yankee-baiting newspaper such as Le Monde to side with America on a foreign policy issue indicates how strongly Europe condemns and fears terrorism, said B. Guy Peters, Maurice Falk Professor of American Government.

"I've really been struck that even European countries that don't always see eye-to-eye with the United States on foreign policy — particularly, France — have shown a great deal of support in the wake of these attacks," said Peters, whose professorial title belies the fact that he teaches mainly courses on European politics and relations with America.

While this month's attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., were deadlier than any terrorist actions Europe has suffered, Peters noted that Europeans are more experienced in living with terrorism, both home-grown (the Irish Republican Army, Italy's Red Brigade, Basque terrorists in Spain) and emanating from the Middle East (the 1972 Munich Olympics, to cite an early example).

Whether the United States and its European allies maintain a united front against terrorists and regimes that shelter them will depend upon America's military response to this month's attacks, according to Peters and history professor Joseph White.

Both men said Europeans traditionally have viewed themselves as being cooler, more effective diplomats than Americans, less likely to shoot first and ask questions later.

"Europeans fear an over-response from us, with the potential to make the situation worse and bring more terrorism to their doorsteps as well," Peters said.

White added: "Europeans like to think that they have a stronger sense of history than we do" — recalling, for example, the time another world power (Austria-Hungary) responded to a particularly shocking act of terrorism (the assassination of Crown Prince Franz-Ferdinand) by issuing an ultimatum to a smaller, sovereign nation (Serbia): We know you're harboring the terrorists responsible for this outrage. Now, hand them over and be prepared to pay the price for their crimes.

"Fortunately," White said, "the analogy with the beginnings of World War I breaks down because in 1914 there were five great powers, all hell-bent on an arms race. Still, it's a reminder that issuing an ultimatum and taking unilateral action can have unexpected, bad consequences."

According to White, every sensible government should condemn this month's attacks on America, if only out of self-interest. "For all of the rhetoric of the last couple of weeks," he said, "there is a hard truth here: For a nation-state to be viable, it must possess a monopoly on the use of armed violence. Terrorism undercuts that."

Apart from Islamic fundamentalists, White suggested, the only people who may be gloating over America's misfortune are leftists who consider recent U.S. civilian casualties to be "small beer" compared with the death and destruction that the American military has inflicted during the last half-century.

"During the Gulf War, more than 100,000 Iraqi men, women and children were killed in less than two weeks," White said. "Hardly anyone in our country knows this or thinks in those terms. But there are probably a few people — they're probably keeping their heads down these days — who could be thinking along those lines."

–Bruce Steele