Here is the head of the European Union expressing his orgranization's stance on fighting terrorism:

The head of the EU executive arm, European Commission chief Romano Prodi, agreed, in an interview published by Italy's La Stampa newspaper Monday.

"It is clear that using force is not the answer to resolving the conflict with terrorists," Prodi said. "Terrorism is infinitely more powerful than a year ago," and all of Europe now feels threatened, he told the paper.

It is unclear what Mr. Prodi suggests as an alternative - negotiation with terrorists? Playing chess with them?

Yet Mr. Prodi stated immediately after the Madrid attacks that "the whole international community is -- and will continue to be -- mobilised against this inhuman, intolerable phenomenon until it is completely eradicated." Again I ask, how do you eradicate something without force?

From the definition of eradicate on Dictionary.com:

v 1: kill in large numbers; "the plague wiped out an entire population" [syn: eliminate, annihilate, extinguish, wipe out, decimate, carry off] 2: destroy completely, as if down to the roots; "the vestiges of political democracy were soon uprooted" [syn: uproot, extirpate, exterminate]

Update on March 20 - It seems like there was an error in the reporting - according to David Brooks in today's NY Times:

Correction: In Tuesday's column I quoted the European Commission's president, Romano Prodi, telling the Italian newspaper La Stampa that force was not the answer to terrorism. I was relying on an Agence France-Presse translation, which was incorrect. Prodi actually said force should not be the only answer to terrorism. He said terrorism would not abate until the Israeli-Palestinian dispute was resolved.

I still disagree.