PARIS -- As America nears the anniversary of Sept. 11, it's worth recalling how Europe dealt with the problem of political terrorism - and won.

From the 1970s to the '90s, Europe was assailed by a variety of violent extremist groups - what the North American media call "terrorists." I try to avoid this pejorative term because it inhibits thoughtful analysis and has often been used as a propaganda weapon by the powerful against those resisting injustice.

For example, when I was covering South Africa in the '80s, Nelson Mandela's ANC bombed restaurants and buses packed with civilians. South Africa branded the ANC a "terrorist organization." Yet abroad, Mandela and his ANC were hailed as "freedom fighters." Former Afghan "freedom fighters," like Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar, are today scourged as "terrorists."

In Europe, during the '70s and '80s, Palestinian groups staged high-profile attacks to gain international attention for their then little-known cause.

The Irish Republican Army, largely financed by Americans, waged a bloody campaign to unite Belfast with Ireland. In 1993, the IRA detonated a huge truck bomb in London, causing nearly $1 billion US in damage, the most costly terror attack until the 2001 World Trade Center outrage.

Italy was terrorized by gangs of murderous Marxists and fascists, culminating in the 1978 kidnapping and murder of Prime Minister Aldo Moro. West Germany battled for a decade against left-wing fanatics of the Baader Meinhof gang, Red Army Faction and other groups seeking to destroy democracy and capitalism. Spain continues to be hit by bombings and assassinations by Basque ETA separatists.

Here in Paris, I vividly recall the massacre on the rue de Rennes, where shoppers were sliced into bloody ribbons by flying plate glass after Lebanese detonated bombs in one of the city's busiest shopping areas. France suffered two decades of agonizing attacks by assorted Mideasterners, North Africans, Corsican separatists, Abu Nidal's killers, Carlos the Jackal, and government assassins from Israel, Iran, Turkey, Syria, and Serbia.

Unlike post-9/11 America, Europe did not indulge in self-pity and nationalist frenzy. Europeans became hardened to random, bloody attacks. There were few calls in Europe, such as we now hear in the U.S., for vengeance attacks and extensive military operations against foreign nations. Europeans realized they faced a long, hard struggle in the shadows. After two decades of political violence in Europe, most of its perpetrators were defeated or rendered insignificant.

Self-absorbed Americans

By contrast, 9/11 was a titanic, single shock to generally unworldly, self-absorbed Americans, whose country had been untouched by war or terrorist attacks. Most Americans had little idea how deeply their government was involved in other nations' affairs, or how much the U.S. had come to be hated across the Mideast. This was the first time America would have to pay what the British Imperialists used to call "the price of empire."

Europeans understood three important things Americans have yet to grasp.

First, police and intelligence forces must be the spearhead of a war against terrorism. Military forces are blunt instruments that should play only a minor role, defending borders and key installations. Better airport security - not a pre-emptive invasion of Afghanistan - would have spared the World Trade Center and Pentagon from attack.

Second, it was not necessary to curtail liberty and civil rights to wage a campaign against political violence. Better security co-ordination, not less freedom, is the answer. Fortunately for Europeans, there was no John Ashcroft to threaten their rules of law and common decency. Europe did have its share of closet proto-fascist politicians, and a few warmongering politicians who urged military crusades, but these mountebanks were largely sidelined or ignored.

Third, during the "terror years," Europe's media generally behaved in a more responsible, balanced, and critical manner than much of today's U.S. media, which, since 9/11, have too often promoted panic, fear and hatred of Muslims and Iraq. The European media had their share of "news" fabricators, but they were nowhere near as influential as the big guns of America's axe-grinding neo-conservative and right-wing media. Further, Europe's press, which is politically varied and avoids the growing uniformity of views one finds in the American media, did not rush to offer itself as a mouthpiece for government propaganda, as have some of the U.S. media.

The results of public manipulation and fear are painfully clear. The U.S. media have convinced a majority of Americans they are totally innocent victims of evil forces, and that Iraq was behind 9/11, though there exists not a shred of evidence. So Americans clamour for war against Saddam.

Over 75% of Europeans oppose attacking Iraq, in spite of efforts by right-wing British media to fan war fever. In fact, a common view here in Europe is that the Bush administration has run amok and is a greater threat than international terrorism, or Iraq.

American conservatives like to accuse Europeans of being wimps in the so-called war against terrorism. Europeans, who understand war and colonial conflicts far better than Americans, learned from 20 years of painful experience that patient police work and diplomacy, rather than flag-waving and military breast-beating, have been and will remain the way to overcome political violence.