Some thoughts on Spain...

[thingfish]

Now, in the chaotic wake of last week's horrific bombings that snuffed two hundred souls and maimed over a thousand people in Madrid, Western civilization seems perched at the brink of an all-encompassing, transformative revelation. The completely unexpected electoral repudiation of PM José María Aznar - who helped enable Dubya's dubious desert war by supplying troops and a big "thumbs up" despite the widespread disapproval of the Spanish people - has American elites and their media proxies openly denigrating democracy with a calculated boldness that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago. A glance at the timeline might prove illuminating.

On March 11, 2004, exactly nine hundred and eleven days after September 11, 2001, Spain experienced an Oklahoma City/Bali-level terrorist attack. Ten powerful bombs ripped through four trains in three stations during the busy morning rush hour in Madrid.

Immediately, Aznar tried to pressure Spanish media into pinning the blame on ETA, the Basque separatist terror organization. But in the decades that ETA has haunted Spanish politics, their nationalist tantrums have never approached the devastation of the March 11 attacks. Also, ETA traditionally issues warnings, and no warning was given in this case. When you add in the unusually high grade of explosives used, the jaw-dropping body-count, and the sheer, nihilistic scope of the vile enterprise, by the end of that first day, Aznar's arguments were looking specious at best, thuggish at worst.

Then, something strange happened. In a Twilight Zone replay of the events immediately following 911, authorities in Spain received an anonymous tip about a mysterious white van that turned out to contain blasting caps and Koran tapes! Stop me if you've heard this one before.

That was about the time the European Arab language newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi received a videotaped claim of responsibility, supposedly from al Qaeda. Again, this was contrary to established modes of operation, as al Qaeda prefers to strike and be silent, savoring the confusion and discord they cause. Nevertheless, a few Moroccans were arrested. After all, we know who was responsible the last time vehicles of mass transportation were used as Weapons of Mass Destruction. Soon the cry was ringing out across the land: "AL-QAEDA! AL-QAEDA!! AL-QAEDA!!!"

Despite Bush administration assurances that the culprits were, indeed, the apparently ubiquitous al Qaeda - an organization which he'd recently described as "on the run" and "decimated" - their involvement is far from a sure thing. The BBC has a fairly good overview of the evidence against for and against both the ETA and al Qaeda scenarios, although they get it wrong on the explosives and give only the most cursory nod to the possibility of ETA/al Qaeda cooperation.

Though nowhere near as tragic as the terrorist attack that preceded it, the election that ousted Aznar - and the American media's attempt to label it as an act of collective cowardice in the face of al Qaeda intimidation - offered an equally disturbing spectacle.

According to conservative opinion-makers, the people of Spain didn't vote out Aznar's party because he allowed himself to be cajoled, conned and bribed into supporting Bush on Iraq despite overwhelming public opposition. Nor was the election a manifestation of the widely-held (and prophetic) Spanish belief that the Attack on Iraq was a potentially disastrous distraction from the legitimate War on Terror. Nor, conservatives say, was it "voting booth vengeance" against a leader who was widely seen as having attempted to dishonestly scapegoat an easy target in the wake of a monstrous tragedy. No, no, no.

Instead, the wise and noble Jonah "sunnuva" Goldberg described the election results thusly: "I cannot see how the terrorists - whoever they may be - haven't won here. ... When the Spanish people basically shout 'We're sorry' after having 200 of their people blown to smithereens, then the terrorists have won. The only possible upside is that this analysis gains adherents around Europe."

From his vantage point atop Mount Olympus, the ever-delightful Mark "Shit" Steyn wrote: "In the three days between the slaughter and the vote, it was widely reported that the atrocity had been designed to influence the election. In allowing it to do so, the Spanish knowingly made Sunday a victory for appeasement and dishonoured their own dead."

And then there's the National Review's own Michael Graham, who typed: "One of the questions pragmatic observers have asked since the Al Qaeda attacks on Washington and New York is 'What were they thinking?' What could the terrorists possibly hope to accomplish? Didn't they know America would strike back, and strike back hard? Al Qaeda lost far more than they gained. What did they think we would do? Now we know. The Islamo-fascist terrorists thought that America would do in 2001 what the Spanish did Sunday: Surrender. We did not retreat. We fought. The Islamists misjudged us. They thought we were Europeans."

In other words, according to the conservative intelligentsia, unless Europeans "adhere to" shoddy, foundationless "analysis" which declares them to be "appeasing cowards" who piss on their loved ones' graves, they're doomed to, um… not be best friends with America anymore? And they wonder why, when Dubya called to congratulate him on his victory, Zapatero asked for John Kerry's phone number!

But according to the righteous intellectual titans of America's Godly conservative movement, we have far less to fear from Spanish cowardice than we do from American cowardice, which is defined exclusively by how one votes. According to the Right, terrorist-appeasing cowards vote Democratic, while strapping, rampaging super-patriots either vote Republican, or for Ralph Nader. There can be no middle ground.

On Tuesday, 3:25PM, EST, conservative radio host Sean Hannity said: "If we are attacked before our election like Spain was, I am not so sure that we should go ahead with the election. We had better make plans now because it's going to happen." Fellow GOP spin-vector Rush Limbaugh echoed the sentiment. Perhaps Aznar was the real Spanish coward, for not having the political will to cancel elections after the bombings. Surely we in America expect our leaders to be stronger than that, to be more decisive than that. American leaders don't roll over for terrorists. They lead! And when they lead, by God, if you're in the way… you'd better get out of the way.

So how might one go about 'getting out of the way' in this supposed democracy? No less a figure than the New York Times' Thomas Freidman offered an answer: "I think that the al Qaeda strategy is as follows. They are hoping to have - I think it's going to be a Tet offensive in September, October in Iraq with the objective of defeating George W. Bush in this election, with the hope of bringing John Kerry in, with the hope that Kerry, uninvested in the war, will withdraw from Iraq. I think that is their clear strategy. It's a combination of al Qaeda and the Iraqi insurgents, basically. That is their strategy. Which is why I've argued - I wrote a column to this effect that it is very important for Kerry for the safety of our troops, to be saying now, I will not run. OK? So if you-if your objective is to kill enough Americans to defeat George Bush to get me to run, I will not run."

Go back and re-read that paragraph. Now go back and read it one more time, this time keeping in mind that a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner is suggesting that to allow elections in the wake of a terrorist attack would be "letting the terrorists win." Not like that. It would BE that. Never mind that Bush is the one who wants a handover by an already-ridiculous mid-summer deadline. Never mind that American forces are already "withdrawing from Iraq" by retreating into fortified compounds, occasionally emerging to arrest and detain entire villages, or secure a perimiter around the site of a massive car-bombing. Iraq, you will recall, has suffered roughly one Madrid-level event per month in recent times...

Because they failed to support an illegal invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation launched by corrupt individuals with hidden agendas and ulterior motives, and because they punished their leaders for feeding them nothing but lies and bullying intimidation, the Spanish people have been branded as cowards by the Powers That Be. Let's hope that between now and November, Americans start listening to their inner coward.

links used in the writing of this essay:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=%22ara...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3501364.stm
http://www.ncmonline.com/content/ncm/2001/oct/1001spain.html
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4540609
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/8178998.htm
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&edition=ca&q=%22entire+village%22+ir...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/iraq/timeline_bombing.html