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Thanks for the post by Sunken. The assertion in the basic article that "Cirac also believes that Turkey should be admitted to the EU" struck me as false, and Sunken's post demonstrates its falsity.

I've lived in Turkey and was always treated hospitably, but the country is under continual stress between secular Kemalism supported by the army, and the strong Islamic beliefs of the masses. The present Turkish government bases its strength on Islamism and has tried to marginalize the Kemalist army, while making appropriate noises that would please the EU.

Yeah, well put, the struggle between the Islamicists and the quite secular armed forces will (already has) compromised Turkey's ability to respond to terror. As a non-negotiable precondition to join the EU, Turkey had to drop a bunch of capital penalties, as well as permit Kurdish language use in Kurdish areas. Another article (I've posted it somewhere around FR) analyzed the strong Turkish Moslem support for EU membership (kind of a "born again" move, as stricter Moslems tended to oppose EU membership in the past) and linked it to some other EU requirements regarding free practice of religion. That will require alteration of the Turkish constitution, which guarantees a secular state.

The French crackdown on Moslem attire (particularly among females) and the display of religious emblems is also a violation of EU principles, which probably is a good idea as regards Moslems in France (and in the US -- we all remember the lawsuit regarding a US-born recent convert to Islam, living on the lam from Illinois, refusing to let her face be photographed for her Florida driver's license -- the suit failed AFAIK). It's a good bet that France will be the next nation to suffer widespread terror attacks, despite the decades-worth of anti-libertarian legislation in that country.