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Mark Steyn: The Spanish dishonoured their dead
The Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | 03/16/04 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 03/15/2004 4:14:39 PM PST by Pokey78

"When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, naturally they will like the strong horse." So said Osama bin Laden in his final video appearance two-and-a-half years ago. But even the late Osama might have been surprised to see the Spanish people, invited to choose between a strong horse and a weak horse, opt to make their general election an exercise in mass self-gelding.

To be sure, there are all kinds of John Kerry-esque footnoted nuances to Sunday's stark numbers. One sympathises with those electors reported to be angry at the government's pathetic insistence, in the face of the emerging evidence, that Thursday's attack was the work of Eta, when it was obviously the jihad boys. One's sympathy, however, disappears with their decision to vote for a party committed to disengaging from the war against the jihadi. As Margaret Thatcher would have said: "This is no time to go wobbly, Manuel." But they did. And no one will remember the footnotes, the qualifications, the background - just the final score: terrorists toppled a European government.

What was it all those party leaders used to drone robotically after IRA atrocities? We must never let the bullet and the bomb win out over the ballot and the bollocks. Something like that. In Spain, the bombers hijacked the ballot, and very decisively. The Socialist Workers' Party wouldn't have won, except for the terrorism.

At the end of last week, American friends kept saying to me: "3/11 is Europe's 9/11. They get it now." I expressed scepticism. And I very much doubt whether March 11 will be a day that will live in infamy. Rather, March 14 seems likely to be the date bequeathed to posterity, in the way we remember those grim markers on the road to conflagration through the 1930s, the tactical surrenders that made disaster inevitable. All those umbrellas in the rain at Friday's marches proved to be pretty pictures for the cameras, nothing more. The rain in Spain falls mainly on the slain. In the three days between the slaughter and the vote, it was widely reported that the atrocity had been designed to influence the election. In allowing it to do so, the Spanish knowingly made Sunday a victory for appeasement and dishonoured their own dead.

And, if it works in Spain, why not in Australia, Britain, Italy, Poland? In his 1996 "Declaration of War Against the Americans", Bin Laden cited Washington's feebleness in the face of the 1992 Aden hotel bombings and the Black Hawk Down business in Somalia in 1993: "You have been disgraced by Allah and you withdrew," he wrote. "The extent of your impotence and weaknesses became very clear." To the jihadis' way of thinking, on Thursday, the Spaniards were disgraced by Allah; on Sunday, they withdrew. The extent of their impotence and weaknesses is very clear.

Or, as Simon Jenkins put it in a hilariously mistimed cover story for last Thursday's Spectator arguing that this terrorism business is a lot of twaddle got up by Blair and Bush: "Bombs kill and panic the panicky. But they do not undermine civilised society unless that society wants to be undermined." And there's no chance of that happening, right?

Jenkins's argument, such as it is, is that a bomb here, a bomb there, nothing to get your knickers in a twist about: that's one thing we Europeans understand. But what he refuses to address is the shifting facts on the ground.

Europe's home-grown terrorism problems take place among notably static populations, such as Ulster and the Basque country. One could make generally safe extrapolations about the likelihood of holding Northern Ireland to what HMG used to call an "acceptable level of violence".

But in the same three decades as Ulster's "Troubles", the hitherto moderate Muslim populations of south Asia were radicalised by a politicised form of Islam; previously broadly unIslamic societies such as Nigeria became Islamified; and large Muslim populations settled in parts of Europe that had little or no experience of mass immigration.

You can argue about what these trends mean, but surely not that they mean absolutely nothing, as Sir Simon and the Complaceniks assure us: nothing to see here, chaps; switch back to the Test and bring me another buttered crumpet; when Osama vows to avenge the "tragedy of Andalucia", it's just a bit of overheated campaign rhetoric, like Kerry calling Bush a "liar", that's all.

For the non-complacent, the question is fast becoming whether "civilised society" in much of Europe is already too "undermined". Last Friday, for a brief moment, it looked as if a few brave editorialists on the Continent finally grasped that global terrorism is a real threat to Europe, and not just a Bush racket. But even then they weren't proposing that the Continent should rise up and prosecute the war, only that they be less snippy in their carping from the sidelines as America gets on with it. Spain was Washington's principal Continental ally, and what does that boil down to in practice? 1,300 troops. That's fewer than what the New Hampshire National Guard is contributing.

The other day, the editor of Le Monde, writing in the Wall Street Journal, dismissed as utterly false the widespread belief among all Americans except John Kerry's campaign staff that France is a worthless ally: "Let us remember here," he wrote, "the involvement of French and German soldiers, among other European nationalities, in the operations launched in Afghanistan to pursue the Taliban, track down bin Laden and attempt to free the Afghans."

Oh, put a baguette in it, will you? The Continentals didn't "launch" anything in Afghanistan. They showed up when the war was over - after the Taliban had been toppled and the Afghans liberated. And a few hundred Nato troops in post-combat mopping-up operations barely registers in the scale against the gazillions of Americans defending the Continent so that EU governments can blow their defence budgets on welfare programmes that make the citizens ever more enervated and dependent.

The only fighting that there is going to be in Europe in the foreseeable future is civil war, and when that happens American infantrymen will want to be somewhere safer. Like Iraq. There are strong horses and weak horses, but right now western Europe is looking like a dead horse.


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: election; madridbombing; marksteyn; marksteynlist; spain
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To: Pokey78
In his 1996 "Declaration of War Against the Americans", Bin Laden cited Washington's feebleness in the face of the 1992 Aden hotel bombings and the Black Hawk Down business in Somalia in 1993: "You have been disgraced by Allah and you withdrew," he wrote. "The extent of your impotence and weaknesses became very clear."

Well, at least we know now what foreign leader, Kerry had talked to.

81 posted on 03/15/2004 6:45:46 PM PST by Tribune7 (Vote Toomey April 27)
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To: Pokey78
"And a few hundred Nato troops in post-combat mopping-up operations barely registers in the scale against the gazillions of Americans defending the Continent so that EU governments can blow their defence budgets on welfare programmes that make the citizens ever more enervated and dependent. "

In a precious necklace of gems, this is the that hit me.

That said, I'm grateful for President Asnar and the good support Spain has shown to this point in the Coalition.

The phrase "buyer's remorse" fits perfectly--at some point Europe will realize the US is right. The only question is, how many will die?

I don't think Europe will be taken over by Islamicists--I think they'll revert to a Nazi-like dictatorship first.
82 posted on 03/15/2004 6:46:29 PM PST by Forgiven_Sinner (The Passion of the Christ--the top non-fiction movie of all time)
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To: Pokey78
And I very much doubt whether March 11 will be a day that will live in infamy. Rather, March 14 seems likely to be the date bequeathed to posterity, in the way we remember those grim markers on the road to conflagration through the 1930s, the tactical surrenders that made disaster inevitable.
83 posted on 03/15/2004 7:06:03 PM PST by spodefly (The kinder, gentler spodefly.)
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To: Dog Gone
the worst of the EU is too wimpy to even fight

They'll fight. They won't fight people they don't know who threaten they're lives but they'll frag their neighbors in a heartbeat.

Remember: Leftists are only pretending to be good people. The farther left they are, the more rage lurks inside them.

84 posted on 03/15/2004 7:06:16 PM PST by irv
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To: irv
who threaten they're their lives

You'd never know I previewed that, would you?

85 posted on 03/15/2004 7:08:36 PM PST by irv
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

I'll bet you do. :)
86 posted on 03/15/2004 7:14:31 PM PST by onyx (Kerry' s a Veteran, but so were Lee Harvey Oswald, Timothy McVeigh and Benedict Arnold.)
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To: Pokey78; autoresponder; PhilDragoo; Liz; onyx; nicmarlo; Happy2BMe; potlatch; devolve; MEG33; ...
At the end of last week, American friends kept saying to me: "3/11 is Europe's 9/11. They get it now." I expressed scepticism. And I very much doubt whether March 11 will be a day that will live in infamy. Rather, March 14 seems likely to be the date bequeathed to posterity, in the way we remember those grim markers on the road to conflagration through the 1930s, the tactical surrenders that made disaster inevitable. All those umbrellas in the rain at Friday's marches proved to be pretty pictures for the cameras, nothing more. The rain in Spain falls mainly on the slain. In the three days between the slaughter and the vote, it was widely reported that the atrocity had been designed to influence the election. In allowing it to do so, the Spanish knowingly made Sunday a victory for appeasement and dishonoured their own dead.

God save us all if Kerry pulls this off ...


87 posted on 03/15/2004 7:17:14 PM PST by MeekOneGOP (The Democrats say they believe in CHOICE. I have chosen to vote STRAIGHT TICKET GOP for years !!)
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To: GailA
ping ! ;^O

88 posted on 03/15/2004 7:19:54 PM PST by MeekOneGOP (The Democrats say they believe in CHOICE. I have chosen to vote STRAIGHT TICKET GOP for years !!)
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To: Democratshavenobrains
America under Bush dared to topple a fascist meglomaniacal dictator and now try to make Iraq into a civilized state for the first time in 500 years.

So, let me see here. You're saying that Iraq, when Ismail the First of the Persian Safavid dynasty invaded from the east, was when Iraq was last civilized?

89 posted on 03/15/2004 7:20:24 PM PST by Pahuanui (When a foolish man hears of the Tao, he laughs out loud)
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To: My2Cents
Can we make Mark Steyn the White House press spokesman?

Yes, or someone who will advise Bush to say that the europeans that Kerry wants us to cuddle up with, have lost their way and are lost in the vast woods. Thier road towards defeatism in the face of the challenege of radical Islamo-terrorism. GW needs to identify what mistake France and Germany indulges and that Kerry is essentially engaged in a sound byte that he thought found afavorable reaction when he calls for restablishing our "bona fides" with our F& G "friends". Without this clarity, Bush will have a difficult road ahead. With that clarity, there can be major movement that will sweep at all levels.

90 posted on 03/15/2004 7:25:12 PM PST by ontos-on
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To: don'tbedenied
On your WWII analogy, the Spanish Civil War in the late 30's was a Fascist victory with the Nazis assisting Franco against the left. There are disimilarities but these are minor. One can see the fascists winning in Spain here as a prelude to the big one that is coming.
91 posted on 03/15/2004 7:29:27 PM PST by ontos-on
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To: don'tbedenied
On your WWII analogy, the Spanish Civil War in the late 30's was a Fascist victory with the Nazis assisting Franco against the left. There are disimilarities but these are minor. One can see the fascists winning in Spain here as a prelude to the big one that is coming.
92 posted on 03/15/2004 7:29:34 PM PST by ontos-on
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To: prairiebreeze
It might. The other possibility is that their government won't be very stable.

The Socialists didn't get an absolute majority, which means that they must rely upon some of the splinter parties (mostly extreme regional nationalist parties in Catalonia and the Basque Country) to govern.

These parties themselves are pretty unstable right now, and forming a coalition with them is not going to be a dream scenario for any major party.

Maybe the whole thing will implode.

(Personally, I hope so, because Zap looks like Mr. Bean on speed, and the thought of somebody that weird heading a major Western nation is like - well, like the thought of Kerry being President of the US.)
93 posted on 03/15/2004 7:31:11 PM PST by livius
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To: ontos-on
The Spanish Civil War started with a military uprising when the Communists undermined the election process and essentially carried out a bloodless coup.
94 posted on 03/15/2004 7:35:34 PM PST by livius
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To: Irene Adler
Yes, let us not forget Michael Kelly, a noble soul. It is coming up on the first anniversary.
95 posted on 03/15/2004 7:35:48 PM PST by ontos-on
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To: Pokey78
There is this - that the vote was favorably affected by this atrocity (from the terrorists' viewpoint) makes it likely that the atrocity will be repeated - in those places most likely to be so affected. Terrorists in this sense are a pragmatic lot. It works like this - we get bombed, we take down two Islamic governments. The Euros get bombed, they take down their own government. And the question is - who is more likely next to be bombed?

There is a growing undercurrent of resentment against predatory and migratory Moslems in Europe, and so far the only politicians to have tapped it have been successfully marginalized (or assassinated in the case of Pim Fortuyn). What concerns me most is that when the pendulum does swing the other way it won't include a pro-American component, it will be violent, and we'll be stuck cleaning up the mess (and inevitably blamed for it by both sides). I do not see the EU being a happy place over the next decade. It isn't our problem.

96 posted on 03/15/2004 7:38:25 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: nutmeg
bttt
97 posted on 03/15/2004 7:42:20 PM PST by prognostigaator
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To: livius
I think they're regretting it even as we speak.

Come on now. You dont have any evidence for that, do you? That sounds like you are substituting your feelings fo rtheirs. If that worked htey would not have voted as they did on Sunday in the first place.

98 posted on 03/15/2004 7:44:47 PM PST by ontos-on
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To: ontos-on
Actually, I've heard callers on Spanish radio who seem to be having second thoughts.

They voted as they did on Sunday because the left stampeded them. Are you yourself going to be brave enough to stand up to people rioting outside GOP offices and harrassing you at the polls when you go to vote in November? Won't you feel that - well, they're noisy, they set fire to GOP offices here and there, so they must be right? Plus, who doesn't like "peace" ... I mean, can you vote against peace?

The left had a day and a half to get this together, and they did it. And the Dems will do the same here, as you probably know, for one reason or another.

Vote in haste, repent at leisure.
99 posted on 03/15/2004 7:56:44 PM PST by livius
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100
100 posted on 03/15/2004 8:15:02 PM PST by WSGilcrest (It's hard to get along when you're omnipotent.)
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