The Israeli assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin has provided another opportunity to witness the alarming double standards displayed by the EU in regard to the war on terrorism.

Their theory of Terrorist Relativity is based on the idea that one man's 'terrorist' is another's 'freedom fighter.' Of course, you can guess to which category they believe the late 'spiritual leader' of Hamas belongs.

Having financed the Palestinians to the tune of four billion euros over the last ten years, the EU has, in effect, sanitized suicide bombings when the victims are Israeli civilians. Part of that EU money is reaching the operational level of the Al—Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and Hamas, so from Europe's rather twisted perspective, Palestinian terrorists aren't as bad as the Al—Qaeda mob.

They may both massacre innocent civilians, but that's just a coincidence.

For young brainwashed suicide bombers, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin acted as a motivational speaker on how to achieve more in the growing wholesale murder industry. Causing carnage from the comfort of his wheelchair, this old poison—breath pushed the buttons of the demented youngsters sent out to sacrifice themselves to the altar of Hamas.

Naturally, EU statesmen are awfully cut—up about his departure from the realm of the living. They'll miss the old devil.

As stated by Jacques Chirac, Jack Straw and a collective EU statement, Europeans think the Israelis were jolly rotten to do such a nasty thing to a defenseless old man in a wheelchair. They've made more condemnations over Yassin's assassination than they ever mustered for the hundreds of terrorist victims for which his 'spiritual' instruction was ultimately responsible.

How odd then; that only a few hours after having expressed outrage at Israel, and upon leaving another EU meeting on terrorism, Jack Straw came out with this gem: 'What we need is action'.

Of course, what the EU means by action is anyone's guess, though Israel's type of direct action is obviously out of the question and far too effective. The Europeans still haven't managed to implement the previous set of anti—terrorist policies they decided on the last occasion they got together.

Again, it's all relative to the Europeans, just like terrorism. Deciding on action takes an insufferable amount of time because the process of moral justification along each bureaucratic step of the way needs to be weighed so very carefully. There is an insane paranoia that the fight against terrorism might just infringe ever so slightly on someone's human rights, and that would be the real catastrophe — unlike the slaughter of innocents.

In the European Theory of Terrorist Relativity, self—defense ceases to be a reasonable excuse for taking direct action against terrorists who are known to be planning atrocities. In the case of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, there can be no doubt that had he remained breathing, a new litter of suicide bombers would soon be ready to deal out more death and mayhem in the cafes and pizzerias of Israel.

But let's concentrate on Jack Straw, the British Foreign Minister, who deserves special treatment for being the epitome of hypocrisy. His government is currently involved in all sorts of special operations with the US, in which ex—judicial killings are a fact of life. British SAS forces wouldn't blink twice if they had the opportunity to assassinate Bin Laden.

So how can this pompous fool of a man even dare to criticize Israel for the type of successful operation which led to the removal of Yassin? Perhaps it's only to please his European colleagues — a convenient compromise of buffoons. Or maybe he really is a pathetic as he sounds.

The other fact that seems to have escaped Mr. Consistency is that all the other Europeans were mouthing off about the illegality of the Israeli assassination in much the same manner as they've been accusing the British government for waging an illegal war in Iraq.

The British have always moaned about past IRA funding activities in the US, and rightly so. Unfortunately it took 9/11 for many Americans to understand that the mass murder of innocents is terrorism no matter how you look at it. Consequently, Bush came down hard on IRA activity in the US and in places such as Colombia. 

So nowadays, it's not the Americans adopting double standards but the British and Europeans.

There go the fools that will never learn — wave them au revoir.