TERRORISTS HAVE SUCCEEDED IN TOPPLING THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT. Jeff Jarvis observes: ” In any case, it’s a damned shame that terrorists can have an impact on the election and can help bring in the side they apparently wanted.”
Eric Olsen has more thoughts on what is, I’m afraid, a bad day for the forces of civilization.
UPDATE: Roger Simon:
I walk out on my deck, looking across the Hollywood Hills at Runyon Canyon, but my mind is in Madrid, at its splendid Puerta del Sol where I have spent so many wonderful days and where sadly fascists have walked before and for too long. But this time they are not under the flag of Generalissimo Franco. This time, ironically, they rally behind the words of a man, Osama bin Laden, whom El Caudillo would have reviled. But of course the cry of both men is the same: Viva la muerte!
Indeed. Meanwhile Mark Aveyard notes a contradiction: “Remember being told by the left that Saddam’s regime and Al Queda had no relationship, that they actually hated each other? Now they’re saying that Al Queda attacked Spain because the US ousted Saddam!”
And Eric Kolchinsky emails: “Al Queda (or any other terror organization) will rightly perceive that they can influence elections through violence. This vote has greatly increased the probability of a pre-election attack — here and in Europe.” Yes. And it’s reduced the likelihood of addressing this problem without major bloodshed. The Spanish electorate has made what seems to me to be a very shortsighted and cowardly decision, and the world may suffer as a result. As Will Allen emails:
To recall Churchill, the election in Spain indicates that many still hold to the belief that feeding the crocodile sufficiently will result in their being last on the menu. They would be proven wrong, of course, if it came to that. In this instance, it won’t come to that, given that that this crocodile will be utterly annihilated if it bites hard enough. Unfortunately, such an act of utter annihilation will also entail the annihilation of many innocents. I fear that today’s events have brought that grim scenario ever closer, and that what has taken place in Spain could be a harbinger of dangerous developments. I’ve never wanted to be wrong more than I do now.
I hope that Will is wrong, too. I fear that he’s not. It’s worth reading what Lee Harris wrote on Friday:
Perhaps this was a sheer coincidence, and the terrorists had no intention of causing people to change their minds about which candidates to vote for. But if it wasn’t a coincidence, then this would compel us to recognize a potentially horrendous new development, namely, the use of catastrophic terror to “persuade” the Spanish people vote against the pro-America policy of Prime Minister Aznar’s party.
If this is the case, then the Spanish election Sunday will carry a significance that will transcend the borders of Spain, and which could make it one of the most decisive elections in the short history of modern democracy. For if the Spanish people vote against Aznar’s party, then it will appear to the terrorists that they have succeeded in manipulating the domestic policy of an independent nation through an act of catastrophic terror. They will have succeeded in making a nation change its mind about who is to lead them — and that would be a setback from which our world might never recover.
Factually this may not be the case: the vote may conceivably go against Aznar’s party for reasons having nothing to do with today’s terror. But to the terrorists, such a doubt will not exist. If Aznar is defeated, they will be convinced that it was their act that produced this result; and, God forbid, they may well be right.
This conclusion is the last conclusion that anyone could possibly want the terrorists to draw, because if they believe that they can alter the outcome of an election in Spain, it will inevitably tempt them to try to alter the outcome of future elections in other nations of Europe by a similar use of catastrophic terror.
Furthermore, there is no reason to believe that they might not also be tempted to use catastrophic terror to affect the next national election in the United States. Indeed, it is all too easy to concoct nightmare scenarios in which a series of coordinated attacks immediately before the election created a climate of such fear and anxiety that a serious question might be raised about the validity of the national election itself.
There are answers to such an approach, but they are ugly ones. And Reader Barbara Skolaut observes: “I wonder if the Spanish people have thought of what message they’ve just sent to the Basque separatists, whom they’ve been fighting for many years: Wantonly kill enough of us and we’ll appease you, too.”
It never ends. Unless, that is, you stand up to it. And reader Paul Young observes:
I think what needs to be mentioned is the fact that Iraq could have recently been thrown into a civil war but instead its leaders and people understood the situation and did not let the terrorists succeed. So Iraq “gets it” but Spain does not. Why am I supposed to believe that only the U.N. can legitimize Iraq’s new government? It seems that Iraq has more to teach Europe than vice versa.
Indeed. And Belmont Club observes: ” A division of labor has been established in which the Left provides the paralyzing injection on Western society leaving the jihadis a clear field within which to operate.”
On the other hand, reader Paul Harper emails that he thinks the real problem was that voters felt Aznar was playing politics with the bombing, blaming ETA when the evidence favored Al Qaeda. Perhaps so. I don’t think, though, that the terrorists will take that message from these events.
I’m deeply disappointed with the Spanish decision, and so are a lot of other folks, obviously. But it’s worth noting that democracies make bad decisions sometimes — just like every other form of government — and that this decision, though deeply wrong in my estimation, is only one decision among many, by many nations, and that it’s subject to revision later. (And hey, I could be wrong about its negative impact. I certainly hope that I am.) So don’t plunge into despair. It’s disappointing, and it’s certainly not a good thing, but it’s not the end. And as events develop, the Socialists may very well find themselves adopting a less conciliatory approach than they currently anticipate.
MORE: Dave Ross, on the other hand, thinks Aznar doomed himself:
But on the short term, remember this: Mr Anzar loudly leapt to the conclusion it was ETA, at the very onset of the investigation. Evidence soon mounted that this was done by al-Qaida sympathisers. Aznar is guilty of manipulating a tragedy for political advantage. And if I may say so, he did it in the most clumsy manner I have seen in years.
Worse, by going off on that tangent, Aznar impeded the investigation. That means: even from a pro-War perspective, he was ineffective at prosecuting the European front of it. That is unforgivable.
The voters punished him for his sins. Justly. “Capitulation” doesn’t even come into it. Yes there were some terrorist appeasers and sympathisers voting for the Socialists, but I bet the majority of anti-Aznarites feel as I do.
I suppose we’ll find out. Iberian Notes isn’t very happy.
Meryl Yourish isn’t happy either — but she has some optimistic observations that are worth reading.