Al-Qaida's hate is inclusive

At a time when some in the European community -- both citizens at large and political leaders -- seem to be viewing the war on terrorism as an "American problem," the attack on a French tanker in Yemen and the bombing of a nightclub in Indonesia should be a wake-up call.
While no other nation has suffered anything close to the one-day carnage of last Sept. 11, it is clear that the war launched by Islamic fundamentalists is not against the United States, it is against the West.
The death toll from a car bombing outside an Indonesian disco crowded with foreigners is approaching 200, with about 20 still missing and hundreds hospitalized.
Significant date
The attack came on the second anniversary of the Al-Qaida-linked attack against USS Cole off Yemen that killed 17 American sailors. That's unlikely to be a coincidence.
But clearly, Americans were not the target of this bombing. While two Americans were killed and one is missing, the vast majority of the victims were Australian. Among the dead were also citizens of Great Britain, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Ecuador and Indonesia.
Europeans may not want to sign on to all of the United States' initiatives against Al-Qaida -- they are yet to be convinced of an Iraqi connection to worldwide terrorism, for instance -- but they dare not delude themselves that the war against terrorism is America's war.