Unity Only Goes So Far

In the wake of yesterday's bombings in London, the world leaders meeting in Scotland quickly came together to express a shared outrage over the attacks, a shared resolve not to give in to terrorism, and a shared determination to bring those who did it to justice.

Then this morning, in what they described as "an alternative to hatred," they jointly announced aid packages for the Palestinian Authority and Africa.

But there's one big thing the world leaders do not share: support for President Bush's method of fighting terror.

While Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair continue to insist that the war in Iraq is making the world safer from terrorism, they are increasingly alone -- and face mounting evidence that Iraq is turning into a formidable terrorist training ground and recruiting tool.

There was no disagreement in public between the world leaders on Iraq at the G-8 summit. And the leaders' joint statement on terrorism conspicuously didn't mention Iraq at all.

But yesterday's bombings will likely lead to a spirited global debate about different ways of responding to a terror attack. Do you feed your nation's fears or refuse to be terrorized? Do you erode your citizens' freedoms or aspire to greater acts of altruism? Do you lash out at people who had nothing to do with it, or hunt down and destroy the thugs who are responsible? And what, when all is said and done, makes you safer?

War on Terror Update

Steve Coll and Susan B. Glasser write in The Washington Post: "Now more a brand than a tight-knit group, al Qaeda has responded to four years of intense pressure from the United States and its allies by dispersing its surviving operatives, distributing its ideology and techniques for mass-casualty attacks to a wide audience on the Internet, and encouraging new adherents to act spontaneously in its name.

"Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, terrorism experts in and out of government have warned that the movement has appeared to gain ground, particularly in Europe, where a large, mobile, technology-savvy and well-educated Muslim population includes some angry and alienated young people attracted to the call of holy war against the West. . . .

"Bin Laden believes that he and his followers helped destroy the Soviet Union by tying its 40th Army down in a long, costly war in Afghanistan during the 1980s. These days bin Laden says again and again that he intends to do the same to the United States and its allies in Iraq."

Sebastian Rotella, Greg Miller and Alissa J. Rubin write in the Los Angeles Times: "If Al Qaeda or its allies carried out the bombings in London, as many investigators suspect, Islamic extremists would have succeeded in striking their top European target as terrorist networks are gaining combat experience and inspiration from the conflict in Iraq, officials said Thursday. . . .

"Before Thursday's attacks, investigators say, they had been concerned by the increasing presence in Europe of veterans of the Iraq conflict. During the last six months, Western intelligence reports described a 'redeployment' onto the continent of operatives of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. The operatives were thought to be planning attacks, a senior European police official said. . . .

"Iraq could replace Russia's Chechnya republic, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Afghanistan as the breeding ground for terrorists who could unleash their new experience, skills and fervor on the West, European officials say. The CIA issued a classified report in May warning that Iraq had become a more effective training ground than Afghanistan for terrorists, and that the threat would spread as foreign fighters left Iraq and returned to their home countries or migrated elsewhere."