US turns on Spanish 'appeasement'

The Telegraph ^ | 17/03/2004 | David Rennie

[Eurotwit]

Spain would be sending out a "terrible message" if it let terrorists influence its policies, the White House said yesterday as President George W Bush urged his European allies not to abandon the Iraqi people.

The blunt comments were softened by hints that Washington might propose a fresh United Nations mandate on Iraq, answering a major demand of the new Spanish leader, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

"It is essential that we remain side by side with the Iraqi people," Mr Bush said.

Mr Zapatero, the new Spanish leader The White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said: "Terrorists must not be allowed to think that they influence elections or that they influence policy. That would be a terrible message to send."

Mr McClellan welcomed the "vital role" to be played by the UN in Iraq, adding that a new UN resolution before the handover of sovereignty in June "is something that certainly would be looked at".

Alternatively, he said, Washington was "willing to consider ideas for updating" the existing resolution authorising Iraq's multi-national occupation forces.

After days of broad indifference to the events in Madrid, newspapers were filled with harsh talk of Spanish "appeasement" and warnings that al-Qa'eda was "sure" to target voters again, in Europe and in the United States.

In his first public comments since the defeat of Jose Maria Aznar, his ally, Mr Bush rejected the idea that Spain's role in the Iraqi occupation was to blame for the 201 deaths in Madrid. He noted that al-Qa'eda had attacked other countries.

"They've killed in Turkey, they've killed in Saudi Arabia," he said. "Terrorists will kill innocent life in order to try to get the world to cower."

Paper dolls, representing the bomb victims, hang at El Pozo railway station He spoke in the Oval Office next to the Dutch prime minister, Jan Peter Balkende, another ally under pressure to withdraw from Iraq. Mr Bush urged Dutch voters "to think about the Iraqi citizens who don't want people to withdraw because they want to be free".

Al-Qa'eda understood the stakes in Iraq, Mr Bush said. "Al-Qa'eda wants us out of Iraq, because al-Qa'eda wants to use Iraq as an example of defeating freedom and democracy."

In public, Bush administration officials insisted it was too early to take the measure of the Spanish elections.

But off the record, one Pentagon official told the conservative Washington Times newspaper: "This was a big defeat for us. Al-Qa'eda caused a regime change better than we did in Baghdad. No cost."

Debate raged within the comment pages of major newspapers.

In an editorial, The New York Times, the country's grandest liberal newspaper, refused to condemn Spanish voters, instead urging the Spanish prime minister-elect to "use his new mandate to pressure Washington to seek UN help".

However, the newspaper also carried two signed columns, declaring: "The Atlantic Ocean just got wider" and asking: "What is the Spanish word for appeasement?"

David Brooks, a New York Times columnist, called the elections "a splendid triumph" for al-Qa'eda, and predicted further election-eve massacres. "Why stop now? Why should they not now massacre Italians, Poles, Americans and Brits?"

The liberal Los Angeles Times refused to condemn Spain, instead urging the Bush administration to "read the results as demonstrating anew that most of the world does not see the Iraq campaign as part of the global war on terror". Yet on the opposite page, their cartoonist took a bleaker view, drawing a Spanish voter giving victory to a terrorist.

[Eala]

In an editorial, The New York Times, the country's grandest liberal newspaper, refused to condemn Spanish voters, instead urging the Spanish prime minister-elect to "use his new mandate to pressure Washington to seek UN help".

The grey lady has turned traitor.

[newzhawk]

My freinds in Spain are so upset that the Socialists won- their lives have been so much better in the last several years with business and tourism- according to them- the bombings energized young people to vote and they are influenced by the anti war and crowd and promise of more social programs. I have a feeling it will be more short lived than the smirking new PM thinks.......

[fedupjohn]

I don't know... but wasn't it posted a couple of days ago that the Iraqi Provisional Authority told the UN basically to go to hell because of the corruption in the oil for food program and that they did not want their help?

[Enterprise]

Let us face a certain reality here. Old Europe was a pretty descriptive term. Senile Europe is even better. France becomes an ally with China, and Spain surrenders to terrorism. A new day has dawned in Europe. It's quite sobering.

[RightWhale]

Scott McClellan, said: "Terrorists must not be allowed to think that they influence elections or that they influence policy.

Terrorists think whatever they think and some of it is surrealistic. They intended to influence American policy with the WTC bombing, however, they didn't get exactly the outcome they wanted. But send a memo, anyway.

[Truth29]

They are going to need far more social programs now. After 8 years of robust economic growth, watch the vitality seek out of the Spanish economy and businesses vote with their resources. Spain could easily sink back into the the malaise from which it so recently emerged.

[Route66]

"My freinds in Spain are so upset that the Socialists won- their lives have been so much better in the last several years with business and tourism- according to them- the bombings energized young people to vote and they are influenced by the anti war and crowd and promise of more social programs. I have a feeling it will be more short lived than the smirking new PM thinks......."

---

There is a sizable percentage in Spain who did NOT vote for this. As much as we like to critize European nations, not all of them want the socialism that is engulfing them. We are all in the same boat now. The freedom loving people of the western world are fighting against the socialists who have now become the opposition party in all our nations. Even in the US, the choice in each election is now the socialist or non-socialist party even though the left and the media they own has been incredibly successful at keeping the "S word" hidden from many Americans who would recoil at the true description of what they have become.

There are many in Spain who are as horrified by the outcome of this election as we were when Bill Clinton won 2 terms and will be if John Kerry wins in November. A small percentage will usually tip the scales in each election. The problem is that every time time the pendulum swings back to them it swings further to the left and they make quick work of dragging us deeper into the pit. Even when the pendulum swings our way for a while, the ever growing number of those eating from the public trough is their anchor on power and the weight which prevents us from making any real progress in climbing out.

[Dog Gone]

If these liberal newspapers were half as grand and powerful as they think they are, no conservative would be elected to any office in America.

[bwteim]

Related, see also

Spanish Appeasement: Spain's New Life of Fear
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1099271/posts

[randog]

After 8 years of robust economic growth, watch the vitality seek out of the Spanish economy and businesses vote with their resources. Spain could easily sink back into the the malaise from which it so recently emerged.

That's a given. The new PM is prancing around like he's the greatest thing since sliced bread, when in reality he was elected in a fluke, analogous to Dennis Kucinich (sp?) being elected POTUS. Now he's got to steer a nation that is in reality controlled by terrorists, an impossible scenario that the most seasoned politician would shrink from.

Sometimes you really gotta be careful what you wish for.

[Robert Teesdale]

To hell with the Spanish. Let them kowtow to the butchers of Al Qaeda, and let the French ally with the Chinese.

We don't need them.