[rmnunez]

Jay, it would be interesting to know what ties with the UAE you are refering to. It is known that all the hijackers on 911 minus one were Saudi Arabian. The UAE is a collection of minute enclaves (Dubai, Abu Dabi, Bahrain, etc...) between Qatar and Oman. I'm sure there must be some misguided wealthy philanthropists there donating to some dubious charities, but other than that I am unaware of any major Fundamentalist involvement. It actually is dubious they would be involved as the basis of this terrorist fundamentalism apparently is Wahabbism which is a strictly Saudi variant of Islam (nothing to de with the Emirates).

On the matter of European failures, I'd note support for intervention was mixed. Spain, Italy, Britain, plus the "Vilnius 10" and 18 former Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe endorsed (more or less) the effort. France, Germany and a few others strongly opposed intervention. We can differ on why (some think the German, French and Russian motivation was tied to pending contracts). It does seem like there were good reasons to hold back (no WMDs yet, no genuine terrorist sponsorhip, poor evidence of nuclear efforts). Now it seems like this will take a bit longer than Afghanistan, that well-equipped and trained NATO contributions would be very helpful, so it would seem advisable rather than to tar Europe with a broad brush to try and draw them in.