A terrible day for democracy
Plastic Gangster has a gruelling assessment of the Spanish elections, which as you'll no doubt be aware spelled a shock victory for the Socialists who have been so critical of the stance Jose Maria-Aznar's People's Party has taken over the war on terror, and who have promised to withdraw all Spanish troops from Iraq.
In practical terms, the terrorists have won. They have launched an attack on an American ally and the result they have seen from it is that within 96 hours the anti-terror coalition has folded like a house of cards and one of the Coalition countries will be withdrawing from Iraq with almost immediate effect.
Talk about behaviour reinforcement. It goes against every rule in the anti-terrorism book. Expect more [terrorist attacks] as a direct result of this election outcome.
There can be little doubt it was the events of Thursday that decided this one. As Denis Boyles reported in the National Review the next day:
Aznar was responsible for ending the Socialists' 14-year grip on power. His subsequent success with Spain's economy, now the eighth-largest in the world; his stern denunciation of ETA, echoing the position taken by his predecessor; and his defense of Spanish interests in the face of French and German opposition meant the Socialists had almost no chance of winning the election before the blast.
But the blast came, and it seems enough people blamed the Spanish government's resolution for the attacks Al Qaeda launched and the country has now opted out of fighting the war on terror.
Plastic Gangster declines to blame the Spanish electorate. I cannot be so generous. The aftermath of mass murder ought to be a time when ordinary, decent people recover their inherent sense of moral absolutism and feel an unshakeable determination for the ruthless assertion of justice. Various US journalists have noted that the rest of the world had no appreciation of the uncomplicated fury, the sheer rage, that the American people felt after 9/11. Who can doubt that this anger - like anger at so many other injustices - was ultimately translated into good consequences for the world? Spain, in its own way, could have followed this path. Instead, the country has chosen introspection, division, surrender and the snake-oil of appeasement. To those Spaniards who let 3/11 swing their vote in the Socialists' favour I can only say: You selfish, myopic dupes.
