The
Reign in Spain Goes Mainly Down the Drain
Commentary by Greg Lewis / WashingtonDispatch.com
March 23, 2004
A recently revealed Al Qaeda internet posting from December
indicates that the terrorist organization fully intended to use one or
more bombings in Spain to influence that country's election. The memo
stated the organization's belief that "after these blows, the victory
of the Socialist Party will be almost guaranteed."
There it is. The smoking gun. Proof that Al Qaeda cunningly
and sagaciously terrorized the Spanish people into submitting to its will.
With the election of socialist peace candidate Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero
to the position of Prime Minister, the terrorists got their wish. Apparently,
at least. The irony that an act of war would precipitate the election
of a "peace" candidate should not be overlooked. The people
of Spain, although they don't realize it, sold themselves down the river.
It's one of the first times in recorded history that a people has willingly
chosen slavery — in the form of being held hostage by terrorists
— over freedom, although, again, the Spanish people apparently do
not know what hit them and may not for some years to come.
Spain did not react as America did to a terrorist atrocity.
One can argue that, timed as it was within days of a national election,
the bombing made it so Spain did not have a chance to collect its wits.
Nonetheless, the country's willingness to give in to the terrorist equivalent
of shock and awe is clear. Where within hours of the 9/11 attacks our
President was rallying Americans to the cause of freedom and in support
of defending our nation, Spain's leadership foundered for lack of firm
and positive direction in its inability to rally its citizens against
terror, and, finally, watching helplessly as the Terrorist/Socialist coalition
swept into power.
What is Zapatera going to say to explain away the fact
that he owes his victory to the deaths of more than 200 of his citizens
at the hands of Islamist terrorists? Will this even be a question? Or
have the Spanish people given up on the idea of the sovreignty of their
nation and decided it's just not worth it to try to resist terrorism?
The problem is, of course, that to Islamist terrorists
we're all infidels, those of us who don't happen to be Muslims. The term
"infidel" is, by the way, also applied to Muslims who don't
condone the terrorism being perpetrated by Islamist thugs in the name
of their religion. And it is not the intent of Islamo-fascists to merely
effect electoral change with their tactics. Infidels are to be killed
or subjugated. Much as Stalin scoffed at liberal-leftist communist apologists
by labeling them "useful idiots," terrorists scoff at appeasers
The Spanish people have earned their "useful idiot-appeaser"
stripes by meekly bowing to Al Qaeda's will.
We also need to ask, however, if America's listless support
of her reluctant ally Spain is appropriate. Although President Bush spoke
on March 19 with eloquence and sympathy of the loss of life that the Spanish
people had endured, there was only one U.S. representative, Ambassador
to the European Union Rockwell A. Schnabel, at March 11 commemoration
ceremony for the victims of the terrorist attacks.
And we need to ask if the United States could have responded
to the atrocity in such a way as to encourage Spanish resolve. The tepid
American response, coupled with suspicions that then-Prime Minister Aznar's
government had tried disingenuously to convince voters that Basque separatists
were responsible for the bombings, were certainly important components
in the outcome of the election. There are many even among Bush's supporters
who wonder if it isn't long past time to begin to mend fences with former
European Democratic allies in a more meaningful way than we have been
able to achieve thus far.
Newly elected Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero's early
comments about the United States' (and Britain's) role in the War in Iraq
were scathing: "Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush must do some reflection —
you can't organize a war with lies." This is hardly the rhetoric
of an American ally, and Spain's defection from its support of the rebuilding
of Iraq, symbolic as it has been, is imminent.
Of course, the bottom line is that Spain is no safer after
caving in to terrorist action than it was before the bombings. They just
don't know it yet. What is it about "Radical Islamists want to kill
all of us because we're all infidels" that's so difficult to understand?
The plague of terrorist activity that is spreading around the world is
no respecter of national, ethnic, religious, or political boundaries.
Al Qaeda has launched attacks against even the interests of the French
and Canadians, whose reluctance to engage, or even criticize, them is
legendary. Hussein Massawi, a former Hezbollah leader, explained it very
succinctly: "We are fighting to eliminate you."
The goal of the terrorists in the Spanish commuter train
bombings was not merely to influence an election; it was to strike another
blow toward the total elimination of all infidels. They will stop at nothing
until they have achieved their goal. Or until the world finally recognizes,
as President Bush has, that waging constant and all-out war against them
is the only way we will rid the planet of this deadly scourge.
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