Posted on 03/17/2004 4:20:17 PM PST by swilhelm73
From yesterday’s White House press briefing by Press Secretary Scott McClellan:
Q “Scott, you said this morning that terrorists shouldn't be allowed to think that they can influence elections or policy. Do you think that that was the case in Spain?”
MR. McCLELLAN: “Terry, we went through this yesterday. There's a lot of analysis about the election. I'll leave the analysis on the election to others. But terrorists want to intimidate. They want to shake the will of the civilized world. And as you heard from the President earlier, they cannot. The United States remains strong in our resolve and in our determination. The civilized world remains strong in its determination and its resolve. We will continue to pursue this war on terrorism and bring those terrorists to justice before they can carry out their attacks.”
Q “Well since you brought it up -- since you brought it up this morning, I thought maybe you had it in some context.”
MR. McCLELLAN: “Well, I think that, obviously, there has been some discussion out there on it. I think it is the wrong message to send to make those suggestions. It is a terrible message to send. We must send a message of unity, of strength, and of resolve in the war on terrorism. Terrorists want to break our will and resolve. They want us to cut and run. There is no negotiating with terrorists. You cannot make peace with terrorists. We must continue to stand together and wage this war on the offensive. That's the way to confront the threat of terrorism.”
Look, we can all understand – or guess at – the thinking that prompted Press Secretary McClellan to answer those questions as he did. You can see that it would be very damaging for the White House to give confirm officially that, yes, al Qaeda scored a major success in Spain.
Diplomatically too the White House would not wish to say anything that might be construed as critical of Spanish voters or disrespectful of the terrible suffering of the victims of terrorism in Spain.
And finally there is politics to consider: President Bush’s political opponents – and their supporters in the media – are already audaciously reinterpreting the Spanish vote as a personal embarrassment for the president rather than a defeat for the antiterrorist cause in general. With that interpretation in the air, it is almost second nature for the White House to deny that there has been any defeat at all.
So, yes, it’s all a very understandable mistake. But a mistake it remains.
Why make excuses for the new Spanish government? Why pretend that it is committed to the antiterror cause when there is so distressingly little evidence of that commitment? The vote in Spain ought to be an embarrassment to every terror softliner from John Kerry on down. Why acquiesce in the idea that nothing discreditable happened? Why let opponents of the Iraq war get away with presenting themselves as tough on terror – when these latest opponents owe their jobs to the terrorists?
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