I thought the original topic was what Europe did wrong and could do better. This led to a discussion about US and Israeli wrong-doings who hamper all European efforts etc.
I don't think the constant focus on the US and Israel is interesting/fair/justified. That's why I wanted to bring the discussion back to European issues.
Jerome, what's your opinion of France's counter-terrorism policies and on Algeria/FIS/GIS in particular?
There is also a lot of intelligence gathering.
I won't comment on France's Algerian policies because it's damn hard to know what's going on and I don't care enough and thus I really don't know enough.
My general position on the region is that we need to let all these countries get their Islamist governments in order to be vaccinated against them. They are seen as the only legitimate political opposition, so any election will brign them in, and the parallel experiences of Iran and Algeria show that preventing the rise of an Islamic government is ultimately more deadly to the local population (cf cival war in Algeria)and more dangerous to us (cf Algerian terrorism in France) - and that at least Iranians, if given a choice, would ditch fundamentalists now.
Further, we have to wean ourselves of oil - that will downgrade the importance of the region.
In the meantime, as stated by others, getting to a formal Israeli-Palestinian peace would solve a lot of things.
So there you go:
I've created a monster! Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. — Euripides
Jörg. your diary is all about US policy and how European criticism of it is misplaced, not about European policy. Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. — Euripides
