Sunday, March 14, 2004
The Spanish Election
The news is in- Spain has overwhelmingly voted against Jose Marie Aznar, one of our staunchest allies in the war on terror, in favor of a socialist government. The reports say that they did this over anger at Aznar for getting them involved in the Iraq war, and thus making them the targets of this recent attack that killed nearly 200 of their citizens. If this is true, it means that the terrorists have succeeded in influencing an election, which is a very bad thing. Instapundit has lots of different reactions from the blogosphere- take a look.
The polls said that Aznar's party was running a little bit behind even before the attacks, but after the attacks, he lost huge, by a wide margin. Some say this was a backlash against Aznar's apparent attempt to bolster his political position by blaming the attack on the ETA, the Basque terrorist group, rather than Al-Qaeda, even after evidence started to come in blaming Al-Qaeda. But it's hard to think that such a thing could have swung the electorate so much against him.
It appears very much as if the Spanish population, that was against Spain's involvement in the war, has responded to the attack against them in a cowardly fashion- running away from the fight. It also appears very much, that as Volokh is saying, this is all the more reason that we shouldn't allow other countries to determine our foreign policy. The terrorists could then stop us just by cowing a weak link like Spain has turned out to be.
If Spain thinks that their bargain with the devil will save them, they are mistaken. If the terrorists actually succeed in destroying America, which they never will, they will come for all the weaklings and cowards next. The Islamists and fascists will not rest until the world is theirs, or they are dead. There were many who thought that enough of them could be persuaded by force that their fight was futile, that they would never win. The Spanish people just made that case even harder to make. They made it harder for us to win this war any other way than the unilateral use of overwhelming force.
The polls said that Aznar's party was running a little bit behind even before the attacks, but after the attacks, he lost huge, by a wide margin. Some say this was a backlash against Aznar's apparent attempt to bolster his political position by blaming the attack on the ETA, the Basque terrorist group, rather than Al-Qaeda, even after evidence started to come in blaming Al-Qaeda. But it's hard to think that such a thing could have swung the electorate so much against him.
It appears very much as if the Spanish population, that was against Spain's involvement in the war, has responded to the attack against them in a cowardly fashion- running away from the fight. It also appears very much, that as Volokh is saying, this is all the more reason that we shouldn't allow other countries to determine our foreign policy. The terrorists could then stop us just by cowing a weak link like Spain has turned out to be.
If Spain thinks that their bargain with the devil will save them, they are mistaken. If the terrorists actually succeed in destroying America, which they never will, they will come for all the weaklings and cowards next. The Islamists and fascists will not rest until the world is theirs, or they are dead. There were many who thought that enough of them could be persuaded by force that their fight was futile, that they would never win. The Spanish people just made that case even harder to make. They made it harder for us to win this war any other way than the unilateral use of overwhelming force.
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