Minister: Germany's No 'Island of Peace'

German Defense Minister Peter Struck has warned that after the deadly attacks in London no one should be under the illusion that Germany is "a small island of peace," according to the regional daily Express. German assistance in training Iraqi police officers "would also be a motive for those who are opposed to the Iraq war and have a campaign against western culture to strike at us," Struck said in an interview to be published in the paper's Tuesday edition. There were no concrete signs currently of any attacks being planned in Germany, he added. The fact that Germany has not been hit with attacks is due to the refusal of the Social Democrat and Green coalition government to join the armed intervention in the Iraq as well as "simple luck," Struck said. "We must make sure that our country does not become a training camp for terrorists," he said. Germans Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said in the online edition of the magazine Der Spiegel that it would be "stupid" to think that Germany's refusing to join the US-led coalition in Iraq would protect it from terrorist attacks. "Those who commit the attacks are full of hate, they do not make any distinctions," Fischer said, adding that al-Qaeda supporters want to strike at "civil society, the public and our fundamental values."