European Updates

The Christian Science Monitor, perhaps the only American news source I respect, has a fine article on the importance of CIA flights in Europe. Here’s a taste:

WASHINGTON ““ Stoking the smoldering international controversy over America’s conduct of its war on terror, a European Parliament inquiry has found that the CIA carried out as many as 1,000 secret flights through Europe since the 9/11 attacks.

[...] The allegations have so far created few official waves, coming as they do as European governments mull their own responses to international terrorism – and after reports late last year had already prompted a round of transatlantic diplomacy. But the response does indicate that the US has a black eye not so much with European governments, but with European publics. And it also hints – as the report alleges – that at least some European governments not only knew of the flights and transfers of suspected terrorists, but also cooperated with them.

Indeed, the rhetoric has died down quite a bit (albeit not from the many loony left wing media outlets) as European governments have finally begun to understand the threats that they too face and have suffered the consquences. While many governments have yet to establish an official policy towards terrorism, such as America’s Global War on Terror or now Long War, they are willing to let Americans do the dirty work in the mean time, regardless whether that means abducting terror suspects in Europe.

And last and perhaps most interestingly, the former Spanish president envisions a new future for NATO, a new cause to unite the alliance:

As one example, former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar is calling for NATO to adopt the battle against Islamist extremism as one of its central objectives. Mr. Aznar says NATO should assert its identity as an alliance of democracies with a wider vision than Atlantic security, and decide at its next summit in December to collectively address global terrorism.

Of additional interest is an English language interview with Germany’s Minister of Defense, Franz Josef Jung on topics such as the upcoming mission in the Congo, Iran and the future of the Bundeswehr. Short and worth a read. The questions on the future of the German army are especially interesting. Here’s one:

Q. Is the Bundeswehr of the future going to be an intervention army?

A. The Bundeswehr too has developed in different ways within this transformation process. We used to be an army for territorial defense. When I was a recruit, I experienced our last red alert, when the Soviet Union marched into Czechoslovakia. After unifying the force, we’ve become a more operational army. And therefore we have a different function, and different tasks. We help defend Germany through our foreign missions, but we also provide aid and assistance within our borders, during natural disasters or major accidents. We’ve made some real contributions in that respect, whether during the massive snowfall in Bavaria, or during the bird flu alert on the island of Rügen, or the recent flooding in Saxony and Saxony Anhalt.