Europe at Gunpoint

With word that the French Justice Ministry is taking seriously a threat from Islamic radicals to launch attacks on its soil, Old Europe's new status as a land of volunteer hostages becomes clearer. A group called "Servants of Allah the Powerful and Wise" is making the threats because, unidentified "security experts" quoted in a Reuters story claim, France cooperates with authorities fighting Islamic militants in North Africa.

But didn't France lead efforts to block America's "unilateral" action in Iraq? Yes, but it also prohibited head scarves from being worn by Islamic school girls and, despite it all, remains a functioning democracy. More to the point, France is part of the old heartland of Western Civilization, a former stronghold of the former Christendom. In its post-Christian phase, it is no less Western and, therefore, no less an abomination to Islamist terrorists emboldened by neighboring Spain's emotional collapse at the polls last Sunday.

It's a lesson that must be repeated and argued all the way to November: appeasement never works; it always fails. As Al Qaeda and its allies lick their bloody chops in light of Old Europe's seemingly eternal fecklessness, America must continue to prosecute the war with all speed and with steely determination. It's snowing in Delaware today, but it's going to be a long, hot summer.