Spain's 3/11 - A horrifying reminder that the war on terror isn't over.

OpinionJournal.com ^ | Friday, March 12, 2004 12:01 a.m. EST

[Huber]

So much for the illusion that the global war on terror isn't really a war. That complacent notion, which has been infiltrating its way into the American public mind, blew up along with 10 bombs on trains carrying Spanish commuters yesterday on their way to work in Madrid.

[Huber]

Will this stiffen the resolve of the good people of Spain, or cow them into paralysis the same way that young girls wearing headscarves incapacitated the French?

[jwalsh07]

Ouch, something tells me that Mr Metrosexuals words about terrorism being overblown are gonna bite him in his arse.

[Travis McGee]

Are you kidding? The Spanish will fight!

[Paleo Conservative]

This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Sir Winston Churchill

[TheSpottedOwl]

Will this stiffen the resolve of the good people of Spain, or cow them into paralysis the same way that young girls wearing headscarves incapacitated the French?

Are you serious? Read old history books, not the ones your school issued you...

[cyncooper]

Stiffen their resolve? They've never faltered. Spain has been our good and true friend and committed to the war on terror.

[claptrap]

Blowing up a hundred or so isnt big enough to panic anyone
anymore, its almost like Western Civ. is being nibbled to death by a small mouse. Most of the denizens
of our new "global society" give hardly a backward glance
at these small and irritatingly incessant attacks from
these whacko religiso-nutjobs, its all becoming part of our new "global landscape" the terrorists wont get the attention of western civ. unless they can demonstrate something a little more devestating

[Huber]

Are you serious? Read old history books, not the ones your school issued you...

My history books come from eBay and include Ridpath's histories from the turn of the century, among many others! (Although I enjoy Victor Davis Hansen as well!) Glad to hear that you are optimistic about the Spaniards. I am as well.

"If it is one kind of blindness to assume that man is made for war, it may be another kind to assume that he can remain indifferent to the drama of conflict" - Richard M Weaver

[Huber]

Stiffen their resolve? They've never faltered. Spain has been our good and true friend and committed to the war on terror.

You d'hombre!

[Iberian]

All great posts, so instead of anwering all of them I'll just type. Good stuff!!

[GretchenEE]

The 3/11 attack on the innocent people going to Madrid has taken out about all the planks in John Kerry's platform that George Bush is being too cautious on terrorism's threat, that he's playing on Americans' fears over it.

[GretchenEE]

We were being nibbled to death, and caring nothing for it, for two decades, until 9/11 came along, happily juxtaposed with a President who would do something about it.

Those two things are a duet of the biggest changes in world events in many a decade.

This isn't nibbling at Spain, what happened today. This was a cannon volley. Spain's been nibbled at for a long time by the ETA; they came over to stand with the US because they knew what they were up against if they didn't. Better to be partners with the guys who will help you take out the death dealers.

[LdSentinal]

Tell that to Ho Chi Kerry. He called Spain part of the "fraudulent coalition" in the war on terror.

[GretchenEE]

bttt

[backhoe]

Cross-link:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1095682/posts
Terror Strike! Madrid-
various FR links | 03-11-04 | The Heavy Equipment Guy

[nopardons]

btt

[infowarrior]

Are you kidding? The Spanish will fight!

And the Islamofascists will once again remember, with cold dread, the stern justice of El Cid, and the blades of Castile, which drove them out of Spain, back in 1492...

the infowarrior

[The Raven]

Notice how the world media defaults to ETA rather than al Qaeda?

Even though there's no evidence pointint to ETA.

A leftist tip to John Kerry?

[livius]

Spain's been nibbled at for a long time by the ETA;

Exactly. One of the reasons the Socialists were able to let ETA go (and grow) for so long when the Socialist Party was in control of the government is that ETA generally killed "only a few" people every year and it never reached crtical mass in the Spanish consciousness. A couple of particularly brutal assassinations a few years ago did get people's attention, at which point the PP (Conservative party) government began to take serious steps to roll up ETA.

ETA knew it was getting away with the "nibbling," and knew more or less how far it could go. A cannon volley like this would seem to be self-defeating. Either newer, more radical risk-everything types have taken over ETA, perhaps joining forces with Muslim terrorists, or this was not an ETA action at all.

Of course, already Spain's equivalents of John F'n Kerry are appearing in the press declaring that this would never have happened if Spain hadn't taken a stand against terrorism in Iraq and the world, and that the solution is to surrender immediately and distance itself from the US. And of course, this approach has many supporters among the Spanish chattering classes.

[Molly Pitcher]

I try never to underestimate the Left's willingness to live in Fantasy Land....