Posted on 03/15/2004 10:11:14 AM PST by Liz
About 600 Coalition dead vs. 6,500 Iraqi dead. Saddam Hussein captured. 45 out of 55 of the Iraq Government captured or killed (including all 4 'aces'). 22 million people now free from a tyrannical government. "UN Oil-for-Food Program" exposed for the giant embezzlement and money laundering scheme that it was.
He's right... it was a disaster... for the Hussein regime and his UN appeasers.
Reality sucks.
This is the Eurosnot response to terrorism: "Please please please don't hurt us. We promise we won't ally ourselves with the US."
No, Mr. Zapatero, YOU'RE the disaster! The Spanish people do not know that yet but they will shortly!
Sadly, even if Spain does turn about face the damage is done. The terrorists have been handed what they can, regardless of future events, consider and trumpet as a victory. Even if not one Spanish soldier leaves Iraq a day earlier than he would had the government not changed hands, the actions of Spanish voters have virtually guaranteed more bombings in the not to distant future.
Belmont Club
History and history in the making
Monday, March 15, 2004
Dark Night of Spirit 2
There's an old saying that one should be careful of wishes because they might come true. The capitulation of Spain to Al Qaeda's terrorist offensive may momentarily gladden the Eurosocialists -- but only momentarily. Eurosocialism is ironically premised on a wall of free security, traditionally provided by the United States, behind which they can pursue utopianism. But the practical effect of the Socialist victory will be to open Europe's southern borders to more terrorist infiltration. First, the Socialist leader Zapatero is unlikely to pursue an agressive anti-terrorist policy. He will begin by withdrawing Spanish forces from Iraq. Second, the events of March 3 and the subsequent election have divided Spain as no other event in recent history and has created all manner of political cracks through which an ill-wind may whistle. Third, Spanish access to US intelligence will inevitably be degraded. It will not be cut off, but it will not be what it was.
These circumstances create an objective weakening in the Continental defensive structure. France, already at a heightened state of alert, now faces the prospect that its southern neighbor will make a separate peace with the jihadis. For while Aznar's party might have withstood another bombing, Zapatero's, after all their promises, cannot. If the Socialists cannot take their program of appeasement to its logical conclusion then they must face the very Islamic bombings which they told the electorate their election would prevent.
The appeasement which so amuses the French may not be so funny when played by the Spaniards. For Spain, in concert with America and France, shared the watch of North Africa. And since that is where many Al Qaeda have moved, as the Madrid train bombing carried out by North Africans proves, Europe will find their relative danger increased far more greatly than the Americans, who can comfortably lose the Spanish contingent in Iraq. The loss of a solid Spain, while an annoyance to America is a catastrophe for Europe. Iraq is far from America but Spain is close to France.
In the end, the very nature of the War on Terror ultimately means that Europe needs America more than America needs Europe. The global jihad means that attacks on Europe can be planned and launched from geographical locations far beyond the reach of their defense forces. That could be ignored while Europe remained convinced that it would not be targeted. But now the doubt grows. And if the contingency eventuates, neither France nor Spain have the mobility or the means to pursue their foes into the uttermost reaches of Central Asia, the deserts of Africa or the teeming stews of the Southwest Asia. That deficiency can only be addressed by a sustained program of European defense spending --- and it will not. Zapatero has cast away the very thing that he may need and which he can neither afford nor beg.
Eurosocialism, by hitching its wagon to the fortunes of militant Islam has put itself at it's mercy. That is the definition of surrender, whose fine print the Continent will soon be familiar with. A disarmed, politically correct and supine Eurosocialist society can only exist where other free men guard their borders. By dismissing the guardians and capitulating to the jihadis the Eurosocialists have struck at the very root of their own existence. Lenin once remarked that capitalists would sell him the noose he would use to hang them. But that was before Stalin poisoned him.
posted by wretchard | Permalink: 1:56 PM Zulu
Here's blogspot vitals and well worth the visit: http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/2004_03_01_belmontclub_archive.html#107908340456642781
Bush is going to get a lot of this. Maybe he should spend less time promoting outsourcing and explaining the realities of French and German actions. The Sheeple left is in full robot mode of control of French, German and Euralist economic interests.
It is clear that using force is not the answer to resolving the conflict with terrorists," Prodi said. "Terrorism is infinitely more powerful than a year ago," and all of Europe now feels threatened, he told the paper.
It is not more powerful, or less. The subjugation and liberation of Iraq is a core point for the Eurocentrics like Prodi. These are quite corrupt people, and will use any scare tactic to scare up Eurocentric sentiments. The press will continually report EU folks like Prodi as legitimately speaking for Europe. They do not care if it encourages terrorism in their enterprise. Like the left here, they are supressing understanding of the Madrid bombing to fit their pernicious purposes. (Though Chirac has chimed in, I think he understands world politics better than the lefty Cold War artefacts.)
"Europe" blinked. As with 9/11, the lefties are defining the attack to Iraq, though "AQ" says it was about Afghanistan too.
Absolutely gutless.
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