This past week the International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security was held in Madrid on the anniversary of the Madrid terrorist bombing.

Organised by the Club of Madrid �€“ a grouping of former presidents and prime ministers �€“ to produce a �€œprincipled, comprehensive strategy�€� to fight terrorism, the delegates included UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, EU foreign policy commissioner Javier Solana, King Juan Carlos of Spain and leading anti-terrorism and security experts. The idea, said one of them, was to produce �€œan agenda for action for governments, institutions, civil society, the media and individuals, a global democratic response to the global threat of terrorism�€�.

According to reports, old Europe was a bit frosty and antagonistic to the United States. Perhaps that is because Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was the senior representative of the United States? The Europeans were quite vocal in saying that fighting terrorism is best handled as a law enforcement problem, not a war. NPR’s report said that coming out of the session, in addition to a having a focus on stopping terrorism, was a major recommendation that “measures to counteract terrorism should fully respect human rights and the rule of law.” And indeed, when Kofi Annan addressed the session, he said:

�€œWe cannot compromise on core values; human rights and the rule of law must be respected,�€� he said. �€œCompromising human rights cannot serve the struggle against terrorism. On the contrary, it facilitates the achievement of the terrorists�€™ objectives by provoking tension, hatred and mistrust of governments among precisely those parts of the population where he is most likely to find recruits.�€�

NPR reported that many of the sessions discussed Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and condemned the practice of shipping suspects to countries that practice torture.

Gonzales’ sessions were not open to the press, but his speech was given to reporters afterwards. He said that people ought not lose sight of the goal and that ultimately, “terrorism was a struggle for values and will be won by nations that cherish freedom and democracy.”

Clinton’s Secretary of State, Madeline Albright, conceded that Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib had damaged American credibility, but she thought the Europeans took it too far and that while Americans can learn from European approaches on terrorism, Europeans need to understand how Americans feel about September 11th.

“Well, I think that there’s sort of a general mood that Europe is superior in terms of its approach to things and more sophisticated; that Americans like to see things in black and while terms; and I think that one of the jobs of Americans is to explain that for us it truly has been a traumatic experience. And that they need to understand how different it is for America.”

Oh, boo-hoo. Poor pitiful USA. The only country to ever have a unexpected terrorist attack and now it has every right to do whatever it wants to make itself feel safer. Nevermind that this is like the abused spouse burning her abuser in bed, because he had viciously abused her. Or perhaps it’s like burning her abuser’s brother in bed because her spouse is too smart to turn his back on her.

Perhaps the reason that countries like Germany and Spain aren’t quite so anxious to strip away their civil liberties or their belief in the rule of law in the pursuit of safety and revenge is because both countries had brutal experiences with governments that did exactly that to protect the sanctity of the “homeland” not all that long ago. And they also understand how governments can use abusive language to terrorize the citizens into giving up their civil liberties and expections of human rights, and Europeans are not willing to let that happen to them again.

It is extremely annoying and troubling that even smart people like Madeline Albright believe that the criminal acts of this government are justified because we were attacked. This is just wrong. Repeat after me: Torture is ineffective and it is a sin. We are supposed to be better than that.