Posted on 03/13/2004 8:32:29 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
The terrorist strikes in Madrid mean the era of large-scale terrorism has arrived in Europe, newspapers said as they called the attacks Spain and the region's Sept 11. 'Our 9/11', read the headline of one of numerous Spanish newspapers that published extra editions on Thursday. All television stations showed a logo of a black ribbon, and flags were at half-mast after a wave of bombs targeting trains in the Spanish capital on Thursday killed nearly 200 people. 'In Madrid, Europe's Sept 11,' was the headline of Rome's Il Messaggero daily. Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine said: 'After America's Sept 11, Spain's March 11 will be inscribed into the annals of terrorist outrages.' The attacks were Europe's worst on land, surpassed in death toll only by the 1988 Lockerbie airline bombing over Scotland which left 270 dead. London's Times newspaper said that the seeming intention of the bombers to cause large- scale civilian casualties marked a change in the terrorism tactics witnessed inside Europe. 'Indeed, their very brutality seems to many characteristic of the attacks carried out by Al-Qaeda and its sympathisers,' the paper said in an editorial. It added that Europe was now facing 'something wider: International understanding among extremists, who copy each others' methods, supply each other with arms and coordinate attacks on their common enemies'. The German daily Die Welt said: 'Never before has terrorism in Europe been so devastating.' Like most newspapers, it was unsure whether the attacks were the work of extremists linked to Al-Qaeda or the Basque separatist movement ETA. But it said: 'What happened in Spain was the Al-Qaedisation of terrorism in Europe, the implementation of a tactic invented by Islamists, which does not pursue a political goal such as the overthrow of government, but finds its value in causing the most pain possible in the worst chaos.' The Tageszeitung in Berlin echoed this, saying the bombings were 'a new dimension of terror: Violence for its own sake'. Several papers said the bombings had shattered any complacency that Europe could be immune to mass attacks on civilians, and the continent should gird itself for more. 'The mass terror of Madrid was aimed at the heart of Spain, but we are all in the crosshairs of terrorism,' wrote Germany's Bild tabloid. 'Who is still safe today? Terror is like a hydra with a thousand heads.' Fear of mass attacks was no longer the preserve of the Americans, Italian daily La Repubblica said in an editorial. 'Whoever thought the American 'devils' were the only ones in the sights of Islamic terrorism was wrong. We are all in the same boat,' it said. Writing in the Corriere della Sera, editorialist Sergio Romano said the Madrid attacks could mark an alliance between Basque and Islamic terrorism for 'a common objective'. 'If this hypothesis is borne out in fact, yesterday's date will prove, in many respects, more important than Sept 11. 'The war will have moved to Europe...a European war that the Union must fight with a much improved unity and solidarity than it has demonstrated in the last few months.' -- AFP, Reuters
Not a theme you will see on CBS-NBC-ABC-CNN-WP-NYT-LAT. The idea that Europe would finally wake up to the threat that we have been telling them about for (exactly) two and a half years would not be good news for the cause which is, after all, elect John Frigg'n Kerry no matter what the cost.
Does anyone know: Has Kerry said diddly squat about "Europe's Sept 11"?
Many like myself have predicted on these threads something like the attack in Spain happening in Europe as their wakeup call. However, I thought it would happen sometime several years from now, and probably in France or England instead of Spain.
Europe is in big trouble. They have millions of Muslims who have no desire to assimilate. They core values of European culture and Islamic religious/political values are totally incompatible. Muslim youth are rejecting any European identity and instead are embracing a militant, intorerant Islamic identity that seeks the destruction of Europe as we now know it.
The events in Spain will fill the majority of European Muslims with pride and confidence in the rightness of their religious cause. This is only the beginning. The future of the European Union will be bloody conflict in the form of random terrorist attacks like this one. I say this because I do not believe Europeans in the majority have the nerve to really take on this menace.
I don't think there's a whole lot of doubt as to who is responsible.
But it said: 'What happened in Spain was the Al-Qaedisation of terrorism in Europe, the implementation of a tactic invented by Islamists, which does not pursue a political goal such as the overthrow of government, but finds its value in causing the most pain possible in the worst chaos.'
911 was the absolute worst example of this. Not to minimize the event or the immense suffering, and definitely no offense to Spain, but this was not anywhere near 911. These types of attacks can and will occur elsewhere. I think 911 was a terrible, one-shot deal.
Yes, I agree with you. But I was referring to the majority of Europeans without distinction of country. Unfortunately, the Poles do not make up the majority.
Poland is and will fight the terrorists. But I have no confidence in the socialist left of Europe, particulary in France and Germany.
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