Foreign terrorists dictate terms to Spain. In miserable act of cowardice, Spain kneels to marauding savages.
The disastrous outcome of the Spanish election has been much noted elsewhere. (*) A few days before the election, foreign terrorists murdered 200 people and injured 1,400 more in an attack on innocent men, women, and children riding on commuter trains in Madrid. A radical Islamist terrorist statement publicly called on Spain to remove its forces from Iraq. The incumbent party’s lead in the polls disappeared. The challenging party, promising to remove Spanish forces from Iraq, won the election. The Socialist leader, Zapatero, has already sealed his place in history alongside appeasers like Neville Chamberlin for declaring he will withdraw Spain’s 1,200 troops from Iraq.
I have a few comments.
- The barbarians dictated terms to the Spanish people. The Spanish people cowed before the barbarians.
- You do not honor your dead by retreating over their graves.
- This is not merely troubling for Spain. It is troubling for the future of democracy. I still believe that democracies are capable of defending themselves against terrorism, but reason for some doubt has now been created.
- Spain’s incumbent party should have done a better job in managing the situation. They should have communicated with the people the full information they had on the attacks immediately. That would have bred less distrust.
- The obvious inference is that terrorists will now attack around every election around the world. Fasten your seatbelts as we approach November 2nd.
- Every time we give into terrorism, terrorism gets worse.
- Frederick Turner memorializes Spain’s tragic moment of dishonor in a poem. (†)
- The thesis that the radical Left and the terrorists are joining forces has picked up support.
- The coalition should consider requesting that Spain withdraw its forces from Iraq without delay, because they could now be used by the Socialist government of Spain to collect information on coalition forces for the benefit of terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere. I doubt the Spanish military would stand for such a thing, but the new Spanish government cannot be trusted.
- A discussion in Spain is taking place along the lines of the cowardice the voters showed. (‡) That such a discussion occurs is a good sign. (§)
It’s unfortunate that Spain is now the sycophantic, bent-knee servant of the terror masters. I hope that the natural valor and courage of Spaniards returns to steady them in the near future, and that they will rejoin the civilized world in our fight against the terrorist savages.