The Wages of Flaunting Weakness

Somehow there seems to be a connection between these two stories.

First, our European "allies," who pledged their undying and unqualified support, via NATO, for Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, are now - and you were probably expecting this - bugging out on their commitment:

Britain is set for a U-turn on its commitment to send thousands of troops to fight in Afghanistan next year, with some in the army now questioning whether the mission should be abandoned altogether.

Military commanders say that lessons have not been learned from the run-up to the Iraq war and that political prevarication has left them unable to make adequate preparation for the mission, which had been expected to involve up to 5,000 troops.

Instead, an additional fighting force of only about 1,000 soldiers - almost certainly paratroops - is expected to be sent to Helmand province, in the south of the country, probably backed up by Apache helicopter gunships.

And the Brits are the most stalwart of the bunch. As Cap'n Ed discloses, the Germans have trained more than a thousand times fewer Afghan troops than we have their Iraqi counterparts in nearly twice the time. The Dutch refuse to send their paltry contingent of 1,000 toy soldiers unless we "protect" them. And the French....oh, hell, do I really need to say any more about them?

I thought about the above when I came across this illuminating development (also via CQ):

A wave of arrests across Europe has thrown new light on a European terrorist network being developed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most prominent insurgent in Iraq.

A growing number of terrorism investigations in Britain, Germany, Bosnia, Denmark and most recently Spain and France are linked to the man who has masterminded countless suicide bombings in Iraq, personally beheaded hostages and bombed three hotels in his native Jordan.

Some of the suspected networks appear to be involved only in supporting his operations in Iraq. But counter-terrorism officials are worried that Zarqawi could be planning to use his base in Iraq to start attacking Europe. Security officials are particularly worried by indications that he wants to recruit white extremists who will be more difficult to detect than Arabs or Asians....

"Zarqawi thinks he is bigger than Iraq," a British source said. "He is spreading his tentacles in Europe. There is a sense that attacks are inevitable. Even before the invasion of Iraq, Zarqawi had a network in Europe that provided funds and recruits. The same pipeline will sooner or later pump the other way, from Iraq to Europe."

Makes perfect sense when you think about it. The EUnuchs opposed the liberation of Iraq; they pretended to back the liberation of Afghanistan but have run away when the time came to back up their words with actions; and because we haven't run away from Iraq, "Emir" Zarqawi and his merry band of head-hackers have gotten their holy asses whipped and need to flee to where the pickings are easier. What better place to go than Europe, which is already overrun with oodles of born jihadi recruits and is already too self-dhimmized to defend itself (witness what happened in France a few weeks back)?

Talk about poetic justice.