Re: Sorry to keep this going but...
This is an editorial I read a couple days ago. It brought up a point I hadn\'t considered. If this was an
al-quaeda attack, and it seems more and more that it was, then Spain may have inadvertently set its neighbors up for
similar pre-election hits. That includes the US.
THE SPANISH DISEASE
The reign in Spain died mainly on
the train. I apologize for a silly, but irresistible, opening to a deadly and portentous topic: the electoral fall
of our ally Jose Maria Aznar\'s Popular Party in the aftermath of a presumed Al Qaeda terrorist assault on a
Madrid train.
The Spanish electorate decided to defeat its government for seeming to bring Islamist terrorist
slaughter to Spain. It is true that a large majority of Spaniards never supported their government\'s decision to
send troops to Iraq. Nonetheless, the day before the terrorist attack, every Spanish poll and political expert
predicted a solid win for Aznar\'s party.
But after the attack, about three million Spanish voters changed
their impending electoral decision. Thus, their vote was not out of anger at Aznar\'s policy but out of fear of
the terrorists\' wrath. And so we are returned to Winston Churchill\'s lamentation about avoiding crocodiles.
On Jan. 20, 1940, four months after Hitler invaded Poland, Churchill gave a world address to urge the neutral
nations of Europe to abandon appeasement and rally round the Union Jack and the French Tricolor (France was still in
the fight then) as the surest path to safety against the Nazi onslaught: \"At present their (the neutrals) plight
is lamentable; and it will become much worse. They bow humbly and in fear of German threats … Each one
hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last. All of them hope that the storm will
pass before their turn comes to be devoured. But I fear -- I fear greatly -- the storm will not pass. It will rage
and it will roar, ever more loudly, ever more widely.\" The European neutrals, however, continued to appease --
until, in the spring, they were devoured.
Appeasers are likely to underestimate the price of appeasement. They
always assume that peace and tranquility are available at some price. But the crocodile doesn\'t want a finger or
a toe -- he wants the whole carcass.
The Spanish voters\' fear is understandable. But not only have they not
saved themselves from further harvest by the Saracen scimitar, they also have increased the likelihood and advanced
the arrival of similar slaughters for their cousins in the streets of Europe and America. It is hard not to assume
that within the Al Qaeda war councils, advocates of pre-election terror attacks have gained a fearsome advantage.
But notwithstanding the evidence of the terrorists\' unlimited objectives, the verisimilitude of logic that
appeasement offers the fearful remains comforting -- if falsely so. Appeasement has an awful, seeming logic to it
because we all practice appeasement every day -- with our spouses, our children, our bosses, etc. Interlocutors with
limited goals are often usefully appeased if the cost of conflict is more than the cost of appeasement (\"Yes,
dear, I\'ll be glad to clean up the garage\").
And when the cost of non-appeasement (i.e., the decision to
fight) is very high, we are strongly motivated to assume our opponent has limited demands -- in order for the
cost-benefit calculus to continue to lead us to the comforting appeasement option. I have little doubt but that,
since the Spanish election returns, politicians across the globe have become tempted to harvest such votes of fear,
because the politicians themselves are suffering under the same false calculus of cost/benefit.
Now we must wait
and see which other Western electorates might succumb to the Spanish disease. It would be easy, and comforting, to
assume that Americans will be resistant. After all, we are renowned for our unflinching instinct to rally round the
flag when American blood has been spilled. But the Spaniard, too, is renowned for his courage -- at least as an
individual.
It is only by the vigor and pride of a nation\'s collective body politic that it may be immune to
the disease of appeasement. In the coming months and years, America, Britain, Poland Australia and other countries
will all be tested.
Already, millions of Americans have put the war on terrorism out of mind -- content to
express support for politicians whose terrorism policy is largely to turn it over to the United Nations and the
Interpol. President Bush is mocked by comedians and Washington journalists alike for the assertion that he is a
wartime president. Anyone who thinks that is funny doesn\'t think there is a war. For a threat so minimized, we
need not pay the high price of eternal vigilance. There is probably about a four in 10 chance that the American
electorate will come down with the Spanish disease this November.
Eventually, of course, as the genocidal nature
of the Islamist fury becomes manifest even to the most obtuse, all will rally to the resistance -- as eventually
they did in occupied Europe against Hitler. The question that remains is how many more must die before the maximum
war-fighting effort is mounted by the united civilized nations.
Tony Blankley is editorial page editor of The
Washington Times. To find out more about Tony Blankley and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web
page at www.creators.com.
Re: Sorry to keep this going but...
Yes, I
think it was USD and I that both mentioned that in this thread. Spain sent a clear message to Al -quaeda and other
terrorist groups, that terrorism works. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]
That\'s why I said it
would never have happened in the US. I really believe that. After 9/11 we fought back with a vengeance against
terrorism and if it were to happen to us before elections we would go for the voice that spoke the loudest against
terrorism.
Re: Sorry to keep this going but...
</font><blockquote><font class=\"small\">Quote:</font><hr />
But after the attack, about three
million Spanish voters changed their impending electoral decision. Thus, their vote was not out of anger at
Aznar\'s policy but out of fear of the terrorists\' wrath. And so we are returned to Winston Churchill\'s
lamentation about avoiding crocodiles.
<hr /></blockquote><font class=\"post\">
Jep, just what I thought
to myself as it happened... I recon we might see more terrorist attacks specifically targeted to change election
results to a \"anti-Bush/Iraq-War\" Party...
Re: Sorry to keep this going but...
I took your comments (iirc) to mean that Al-quaeda would get the idea it would be able to walk over countries that
caved in that way. It didn\'t occur to me (unless I read you wrong and missed you saying it) that they might start
planning to hit other countries on the eve of elections.
Re: Sorry to keep this going but...
</font><blockquote><font class=\"small\">Quote:</font><hr />
Yes, I think it was USD and I that both mentioned
that in this thread. Spain sent a clear message to Al -quaeda and other terrorist groups, that terrorism works.
[img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]
That\'s why I said it would never have happened in the US. I
really believe that. After 9/11 we fought back with a vengeance against terrorism and if it were to happen to us
before elections we would go for the voice that spoke the loudest against terrorism.
<hr /></blockquote><font
class=\"post\">
What really worries me is if people will really know which voice will speak the loudest.
[img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]
Re: Sorry to keep this going but...
Yes, I
said I fear that England is next.
Re: Sorry to keep this going but...
</font><blockquote><font class=\"small\">Quote:</font><hr />
</font><blockquote><font
class=\"small\">Quote:</font><hr />
Yes, I think it was USD and I that both mentioned that in this thread. Spain
sent a clear message to Al -quaeda and other terrorist groups, that terrorism works.
[img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]
That\'s why I said it would never have happened in the US. I
really believe that. After 9/11 we fought back with a vengeance against terrorism and if it were to happen to us
before elections we would go for the voice that spoke the loudest against terrorism.
<hr /></blockquote><font
class=\"post\">
What really worries me is if people will really know which voice will speak the loudest.
[img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]
<hr /></blockquote><font class=\"post\">
You should be
worried. This is our world.
Re: Sorry to keep this going but...
Woooooo, after thinking about it, I kind of look forward to dying and leaving this freak show, crap infested,
wrong, unjust, hypocritical, b/s World.
I can\'t wait to talk to myself in my coffen and if someone wants to
blow me up, it don\'t matter I am dead...yeaaaaaa! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]