No Truce With Terror

[onedomino]

The Spanish are now realizing that their March 2004 election capitulation to terrorism has not made them safer.

No Truce With Terror
By Jorge Amador
Published 10/27/2004

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=7308

Did the March 11 railway bombings in Madrid have anything to do with Spain's participation in the Iraqi reconstruction? Terrorist propaganda notwithstanding, the facts suggest that they did not. Events both before and since indicate that the bombings are part of a broader campaign, and that withdrawing from Iraq has not enhanced the Spanish people's security.

There's no question that the attacks were timed brilliantly for greatest effect -- three days before Spain's national election. Considering that the modus operandi did not fit al Qaeda operatives' usual pattern of self-immolation, at first there was plausible reason to believe that homegrown extremists may have been responsible. But eventually the atrocities came to be universally viewed as retribution for Spain's presence in Iraq. This line of thinking would seem to be supported by a videotape which, curiously, was left in a trash bin near the largest mosque in Madrid and found the day before the election. On the tape, according to the Associated Press, an Arabic speaker claimed that the bombings were carried out, "to punish Spain's backing of the U.S.-led war in Iraq."

But were they, really? The trouble with this argument is that the terrorist focus on Spain both precedes the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq, and continues after their removal following the election of a new government.

In May 2003, Islamist fanatics bombed five sites -- among them, notably, the Spanish social club Casa de España and a Spanish restaurant -- in Casablanca, Morocco, killing dozens of people. Considering that Spanish troops would not arrive in the Middle East for another three months, these attacks could not have been motivated by Spain's "occupation" of Iraq. Moreover, investigators believe that the Casablanca blasts were planned by some of the same agents who carried out the Madrid bombings; and one of the surviving Madrid perpetrators now stands indicted for taking part in the planning for the September 11 attacks in the United States. Iraq is irrelevant.

If the terrorists had intended simply to punish the Spanish people for going to Iraq, then, presumably, the voters' election of a more pliant government which promised to leave that country should have satisfied them. It had the opposite effect. On April 2 -- some three weeks after the Socialist Party's upset win -- an undetonated explosive device was found beneath the tracks on the Madrid-Seville high-speed line. Then, in a handwritten April 3 note faxed to the Spanish daily ABC, a group calling itself "Ansar al-Qaida Europe" claimed responsibility and upped the ante, now demanding that Spain withdraw not only from Iraq, but also from Afghanistan.

In addition, the terror suspects who, surrounded by police, brought down their apartment building in a Madrid suburb on the same day evidently were planning to follow up on the horror of March 11. Ángel Acebes, the interior minister at the time, noted that "They were going to keep on attacking because some of the explosives were prepared, packed, and connected to detonators."

Despite widespread public opposition to sending troops to Iraq, numerous opinion polls in the weeks prior to the election showed the governing Popular Party running 5-8 points ahead of the Socialists. Although there is little credible evidence to link the March 11 bombings to the situation in Iraq, the psychological connection of the Socialist victory to the attacks is undeniable. Like former boxer Roberto Durán, who once used a certain inglorious phrase to quit a fight, a certain swing group of Spanish voters cried, "¡No más!"

For their pacifist pleadings they were soon rewarded with more swings to the jaw; and in the wake of these the new president, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, speeded up the removal of his country's troops from Iraq, as if that would do any good. On October 18, Spanish police arrested eight more Islamists, in response to what Agence France-Presse reported was a plan to strike the country's National Court with an 1,100-pound truck bomb. But the troops are long since gone -- why is this still going on?

By and large, anti-war folks are nice people: they don't like to meddle in other nations' affairs. But it is a grievous mistake to think that if we'd just leave others alone, ipso facto those others would leave us alone too. Were it that simple, Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan would have led quiet careers in horse husbandry.

Fouad Ajami noted in the Wall Street Journal last March 22 that "Of all the larger countries of the EU [European Union], Spain has been the most sympathetic to Palestinian claims.... With the sole exception of Greece, Spain has shown the deepest reserve toward Israel." Our sympathy and reserve are not what the Islamists seek. As Saudi Arabia's leaders have discovered, even the adoption of strict shari'a law and sponsorship of fundamentalist Koranic schools around the globe are not nearly enough to placate the jihadists. Only complete submission to their ideology will do; to believe otherwise is a dangerous fantasy.

 

[nosarcasm]

The Spanish are now realizing that their March 2004 election capitulation to terrorism has not made them safer.

my take on the Spanish election outcome.

The conservative government in their first statements blamed the ETa
a local terrorist separitism group for the attack. Many Spaniards according to my friend who lives in Spain felt they deliberatly deceived the electorate for the upcoming election.

I don't know what finally motivated the individual voter, but I assume as humans we oppose bully's that are not all that powerful. Terrorism after
all is the weapon of the military weak.

If the Us would be hit by another attack before the election there
are two possible szenarios in my mind. 1) Bush gets the country
united against the agressors and wins in a landslide
2) Bush is blamed for his failure to protect the country.

There are no active terrorist orgs in the US that could initiate
major attacks like in Spain so it is a weak comparison. But to
speak up for the Spaniards, I give them the benefit of the doubt
that in a crisis they do not tend to accomodate the enemy.

They are quite racist against Islam and Africans so I assume
the victory of the left had more to do with the feeling of
deception by the government.

 

[White knight]

The emotional side to the brain will override the rational side every time; you will see more examples, of how effective this technique in the future. When other significant events are orchestrated and help to herd the cattle around on the earth.

 

[nosarcasm]

The emotional side to the brain will override the rational side every time; you will see more examples, of how effective this technique in the future. When other significant events are orchestrated and help to herd the cattle around on the earth.

You have a cyncial view of the human race.

But I assume you think you are able to stay above the fray.

the problem with cynicism is that you give up and resign to the dark
picture you imagine.

 

[onedomino]

the victory of the left had more to do with the feeling of
deception by the government.

Spoken like a true Spanish socialist. It was not unreasonable to initially blame ETA for the Madrid bombing. Nothing was hidden from the public by the Spanish government. There was no deception; that's what the socialists and the leftist media wanted you to believe.

See this thread: http://www.usmessageboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13532

 

[nosarcasm]

Spoken like a true Spanish socialist. It was not unreasonable to initially blame ETA for the Madrid bombing. Nothing was hidden from the public by the Spanish government. There was no deception; that's what the socialists and the leftist media wanted you to believe.

See this thread: http://www.usmessageboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13532

I am not enough an insider to judge if the government tried to deceive
the electorate, I just can express the feeling that many Spaniards had
that blaming eta was fishy becauce they had never before
had strike Spain on that scale.

In the end I think it was wrong for the new socialist government
to pull out of iraq, thats what the terrorist wanted. Even if the socialist
promised it, after the attack it was a disgrace to do that.

I feel it is unjust to call the average Spaniard a coward, they are proud
people and not cowards in my book

 

[White knight]

=nosarcasm]
You have a cyncial view of the human race.

But I assume you think you are able to stay above the fray.

Today’s political science is proving this; imagery and emotional triggers work better then boring debates. Just look at the GOP’s new wolf ad.
I’m not above it; I have a better understanding of it. It’s an old art form sometimes referred to as Psyops.

 

[nosarcasm]

my point is that if you are able to understand it, so can others,
and if you tell them some will listen.

People are not that dumb as some think imo.

 

[onedomino]

I just can express the feeling that many Spaniards had
that blaming eta was fishy becauce they had never before
had strike Spain on that scale.

That was not the feeling of the Spanish public until it was whipped up by the Socialists and the leftist media. BTW, unlike the ETA, Islamic terrorists had never previously attacked mainland Spain; only former colonies in North Africa. Thus your observation above makes no sense. The Spanish population shifted 12 points from Anzar to the socialists in less than three days! They voted for the Socialist because of fear.

The Spanish Government had reason to initially think ETA was resonsible:
As late as 29 February, eleven days before the bombing, Spanish authorities had arrested two ETA terrorists in connection with 500kg of explosives.

On the evening of the bombing: "The Spanish government initially blamed the Basque separatist group ETA, which came three days before Spain's general elections, but then seemed to back away after police found detonators and an Arabic-language audio tape of Quranic verses in a van near where the bombed trains originated." http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/12/world/main605547.shtml

 

[NATO AIR]

my point is that if you are able to understand it, so can others,
and if you tell them some will listen.

People are not that dumb as some think imo.

nosarcasm, i already lost this argument to onedomino when he showed me the facts. trust me, he's damn near 100% right on this.

and saying this totally respectfully, not doubting or slandering your intelligence, just telling you he's got the facts, figures and timeline to back his argument up to the fullest. i know, i was proven wrong saying nearly exactly what you said.