Free Republic

When the results of Spain's national election were announced last month, Spaniards, in the main, gave a shudder of relief. On the previous Wednesday, outgoing Prime Minister José María Aznar's party had had a 5 percent lead. On Thursday, terrorists murdered 200 people in Madrid. On the Sunday, Azner's party lost by 5 percent. So a 10 percent swing within the course of four days. During the interim, three million Spaniards had changed their minds and voted to appease the terrorists. Their apologists claim that they weren't necessarily voting for appeasement, because distaste for the war and fear of reprisals...

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Last week, Spain had its national elections. Spain's Conservative Party, who militarily supported the United States' actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, was supposed to easily win re-election against the minority Socialist Party. Instead, the Conservatives who believed pro-active steps were necessary to win the war on terror were handily defeated by the Socialist Party, which is known for its appeasement stances. The irony is the Socialists did not actually win. The real winners are the terrorists. A few days before the election, multiple terrorist bombings were set off in Spanish commuter trains. The election results appear to...

Are the Spanish cowards? Or do they simply not grasp the nature of the war on terror? The answer to the first question is decidedly "No." Spain has endured 40 years of Basque terrorism, carried out by separatists who follow an ideology almost as weird as al Qaeda's — a mixture of radical leftism and nationalism — yet nobody has ever talked of capitulating to the terrorists and granting independence to that region. Meanwhile, the small and underfunded Spanish Army has been stretched to its limits by going to patrol Kabul. Last May, 62 soldiers were killed when the plane...

Terrorists and the Democratic Process There is a white flag blowing in the breeze over the beautiful city of Madrid. Muslims, who once fought a bloody war to occupy much of Spain-which they did for centuries, have now done it with a few bombs, an ominous portent indeed. In The Clash of Civilizations, Samuel Huntington wrote that there are three great religious blocks in the world: Eastern religion; the scattered nations of Islam; and Western civilization, influenced by the Judeo-Christian tradition, embodied in the United States and Europe. As we look at September 11 and its aftermath, we have to...

<p>March 16, 2004 -- OCT. 30 has just become a day to dread.</p> <p>On Sunday in Spain, al Qaeda learned that by striking hard four days before a national tally, it could change the results.</p> <p>Our election will take place on Nov. 2. Count four days back from our election and you get Oct. 30.</p>