U.S. hoping London blasts will unite West

Iraq remains hugely divisive
Just six days before the U.S. attacked, a NATO-Russia counterterrorism conference examined these difficulties and officials from all 27 participating countries agreed that the current hodge-podge of laws and procedures needed reform.

The Iraq war remains a hugely divisive issue, however, with polls in Europe showing as much opposition as ever to American actions there. The fact that the London bombings followed attacks last year in Spain, another country that had sent troops to Iraq, has caused nervousness in many countries that supported the U.S.-led war.

"The center of gravity in the war with al-Qaida is now Iraq and so of course it is hard to separate these events," says Radek Sikorski, a former Polish deputy defense minister now at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "But if the purpose of attacking London was to deprive the United States of allies in Iraq, than the terrorists definitely chose the wrong target. Britain is not a wobbly ally. And they've basically confirmed that the American way of combating terrorism — a forward-leaning way — is probably the right way."

Still, in Warsaw, Copenhagen, Rome, Kiev and The Hague — all capitals of countries that sent troops to Iraq — political leaders are trying to reassure fearful constituents that their decision to answer America’s call in 2002 has not doomed them to similar attacks. All of these nations have announced plans to withdraw their forces. Poland, which has the largest contingent, some 1,500 strong, has said its troops will be home by the end of the year.

An opening?
The Bush administration believes the revulsion caused by the latest attacks may help convince some leaders that, Iraq aside, at least on broader issues of anti-terrorism there is no room for bickering right now. American law enforcement officials who attended an extraordinary summit called by Britain’s Scotland Yard this weekend are sure to have emphasized that point.

“The bombing, of course, gives a push to find ways to limit the problems and to make the relationships between law enforcement and intelligence more efficient,” said Emerson. “But this could be only a temporary thing, and there will still be those who will always look at the Iraq war as counter-productive and provocative.”

Still, the administration has gone out of its way in recent days to emphasize cooperation between U.S. and European agencies, and officials on both sides of the Atlantic appear to agree that intelligence and law enforcement cooperation needs to be quarantined from political strains over the Iraq war. Just last week, France’s defense minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, told French television that collaboration between Paris and Washington had averted several attacks, though she would not provide details.

"On both sides of the Atlantic, we are very pleased with the quality of this cooperation that has certainly avoided a certain number of catastrophes and that certainly will continue to do so in the future," Alliot-Marie said.

"This should help Europeans remember that they we are being attacked, too," Sikorski said. "But the most important lesson here is that, even in Britain, which has Mi-5 and a Prevention of Terrorism Act stricter than the Patriot Act, the terrorists got through. Sometimes cooperation and vigilance is just not enough."

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