Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Enough Members for EU

After giving Romania and Bulgaria an endorsement to join the European Union on 1 January, EU chief José Manuel Barroso said enough is enough. The bloc has to resolve its institutional problems before it can expand further. The purpose is to ensure that the enlarged Union will function in an efficient and harmonious way. The EU currently has 25 member states, not including Romania and Bulgaria.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Osama bin Laden Dead?

The French secret services said the al-Qaeda leader is dead.

Even if bin Laden was gone, his fighting spirit and his extreme doctrines would live on among jihadists. After all, they are not fighting for the cause of bin Laden, they're fight for the cause of Allah and Sharia.

The US and the world would have a hard time coping with the dire consequences of the war in Iraq. I know Islamic radicalism didn't begin in March 2003. Yet Iraq is a magnet to jihadists and the invasion of Iraq has galvanized many an alienated Muslim youth into action. That seems to be confirmed recently by the intelligence community in the US itself.