Disaster was averted in Germany yesterday when three men were arrested in a massive counter-terrorist sting operation. The three, two German and one Turkish, had acquired enough hydrogen peroxide to create the explosive equivalent of 550 kg (1,210 lbs) of TNT and were plotting major bomb attacks on several sites in Germany "frequenty by Americans" including military bases, airports and night clubs -- namely Frankfurt airport and Rammstein, the largest US air force base in Europe (although these exact targets remain unconfirmed). The potential impact is chilling: German authorities say the bombs would have been more powerful than those used in the bombings of Madrid and London. Eight terrorist suspects, meanwhile, were arrested in Denmark and German police are pursuing 40 more connected suspects.

There have been warnings about attacks within Germany for several months, from inside and outside the country by way of the German Interior Ministry and the US embassy in Berlin. And now that a real plot has been uncovered in a long operation, one involving wire taps, house raids and some 300 German police and intelligence officers, a sigh of relief gives way to a groan of recognition. Discussion about German forces involved in Afghanistan will get more heated. And the war on terror will widen, but here's to hoping it will get smarter, having left the dunce cap realm of the White House (see below).

Opinion in blogland is mixed. Some are averse to blaming the war in Iraq, pointing out that the three got al-Qaida training in Pakistan and would have carried out their plot regardless of the American presence in Iraq. The German police are uniformly applauded. The Financial Times reports that the cops were so far ahead of the game they secretly replaced some vats of chemicals amassed by the would-be terrorists with less explosive ones.

Re: smarter. Blogger Steve Benen makes the excellent distinction between a military approach to terrorism (favoured by Bush) and a policing approach (favoured by John Kerry in the 2004 election), quoting Bush quoting Kerry, "The war on terror is far less of a military operation and far more of an intelligence-gathering law enforcement operation." Exactly, Benen says. The operation was "the culmination of a six-month investigation by German officials, involving 300 people from the police and prosecutor’s office. U.S. officials have, naturally, thanked Germany for their terrific and successful efforts....The good guys won after months of meticulous intelligence-gathering and an efficient law enforcement operation."

More cops, less soldiers perhaps? World police, indeed.