Mark Steyn: The Spanish dishonoured their dead

The Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | 03/16/04 | Mark Steyn

[Tribune7]

In his 1996 "Declaration of War Against the Americans", Bin Laden cited Washington's feebleness in the face of the 1992 Aden hotel bombings and the Black Hawk Down business in Somalia in 1993: "You have been disgraced by Allah and you withdrew," he wrote. "The extent of your impotence and weaknesses became very clear."

Well, at least we know now what foreign leader, Kerry had talked to.

[Forgiven_Sinner]

"And a few hundred Nato troops in post-combat mopping-up operations barely registers in the scale against the gazillions of Americans defending the Continent so that EU governments can blow their defence budgets on welfare programmes that make the citizens ever more enervated and dependent. "

In a precious necklace of gems, this is the that hit me.

That said, I'm grateful for President Asnar and the good support Spain has shown to this point in the Coalition.

The phrase "buyer's remorse" fits perfectly--at some point Europe will realize the US is right. The only question is, how many will die?

I don't think Europe will be taken over by Islamicists--I think they'll revert to a Nazi-like dictatorship first.

[spodefly]

And I very much doubt whether March 11 will be a day that will live in infamy. Rather, March 14 seems likely to be the date bequeathed to posterity, in the way we remember those grim markers on the road to conflagration through the 1930s, the tactical surrenders that made disaster inevitable.

[irv]

the worst of the EU is too wimpy to even fight

They'll fight. They won't fight people they don't know who threaten they're lives but they'll frag their neighbors in a heartbeat.

Remember: Leftists are only pretending to be good people. The farther left they are, the more rage lurks inside them.

[irv]

who threaten they're their lives

You'd never know I previewed that, would you?

[onyx]

I'll bet you do. :)

[MeekOneGOP]

At the end of last week, American friends kept saying to me: "3/11 is Europe's 9/11. They get it now." I expressed scepticism. And I very much doubt whether March 11 will be a day that will live in infamy. Rather, March 14 seems likely to be the date bequeathed to posterity, in the way we remember those grim markers on the road to conflagration through the 1930s, the tactical surrenders that made disaster inevitable. All those umbrellas in the rain at Friday's marches proved to be pretty pictures for the cameras, nothing more. The rain in Spain falls mainly on the slain. In the three days between the slaughter and the vote, it was widely reported that the atrocity had been designed to influence the election. In allowing it to do so, the Spanish knowingly made Sunday a victory for appeasement and dishonoured their own dead.

God save us all if Kerry pulls this off ...

[MeekOneGOP]

ping ! ;^O

[Pahuanui]

America under Bush dared to topple a fascist meglomaniacal dictator and now try to make Iraq into a civilized state for the first time in 500 years.

So, let me see here. You're saying that Iraq, when Ismail the First of the Persian Safavid dynasty invaded from the east, was when Iraq was last civilized?

[ontos-on]

Can we make Mark Steyn the White House press spokesman?

Yes, or someone who will advise Bush to say that the europeans that Kerry wants us to cuddle up with, have lost their way and are lost in the vast woods. Thier road towards defeatism in the face of the challenege of radical Islamo-terrorism. GW needs to identify what mistake France and Germany indulges and that Kerry is essentially engaged in a sound byte that he thought found afavorable reaction when he calls for restablishing our "bona fides" with our F& G "friends". Without this clarity, Bush will have a difficult road ahead. With that clarity, there can be major movement that will sweep at all levels.

[ontos-on]

On your WWII analogy, the Spanish Civil War in the late 30's was a Fascist victory with the Nazis assisting Franco against the left. There are disimilarities but these are minor. One can see the fascists winning in Spain here as a prelude to the big one that is coming.

[ontos-on]

On your WWII analogy, the Spanish Civil War in the late 30's was a Fascist victory with the Nazis assisting Franco against the left. There are disimilarities but these are minor. One can see the fascists winning in Spain here as a prelude to the big one that is coming.

[livius]

It might. The other possibility is that their government won't be very stable.

The Socialists didn't get an absolute majority, which means that they must rely upon some of the splinter parties (mostly extreme regional nationalist parties in Catalonia and the Basque Country) to govern.

These parties themselves are pretty unstable right now, and forming a coalition with them is not going to be a dream scenario for any major party.

Maybe the whole thing will implode.

(Personally, I hope so, because Zap looks like Mr. Bean on speed, and the thought of somebody that weird heading a major Western nation is like - well, like the thought of Kerry being President of the US.)

[livius]

The Spanish Civil War started with a military uprising when the Communists undermined the election process and essentially carried out a bloodless coup.

[ontos-on]

Yes, let us not forget Michael Kelly, a noble soul. It is coming up on the first anniversary.

[Billthedrill]

There is this - that the vote was favorably affected by this atrocity (from the terrorists' viewpoint) makes it likely that the atrocity will be repeated - in those places most likely to be so affected. Terrorists in this sense are a pragmatic lot. It works like this - we get bombed, we take down two Islamic governments. The Euros get bombed, they take down their own government. And the question is - who is more likely next to be bombed?

There is a growing undercurrent of resentment against predatory and migratory Moslems in Europe, and so far the only politicians to have tapped it have been successfully marginalized (or assassinated in the case of Pim Fortuyn). What concerns me most is that when the pendulum does swing the other way it won't include a pro-American component, it will be violent, and we'll be stuck cleaning up the mess (and inevitably blamed for it by both sides). I do not see the EU being a happy place over the next decade. It isn't our problem.

[prognostigaator]

bttt

[ontos-on]

I think they're regretting it even as we speak.

Come on now. You dont have any evidence for that, do you? That sounds like you are substituting your feelings fo rtheirs. If that worked htey would not have voted as they did on Sunday in the first place.

[livius]

Actually, I've heard callers on Spanish radio who seem to be having second thoughts.

They voted as they did on Sunday because the left stampeded them. Are you yourself going to be brave enough to stand up to people rioting outside GOP offices and harrassing you at the polls when you go to vote in November? Won't you feel that - well, they're noisy, they set fire to GOP offices here and there, so they must be right? Plus, who doesn't like "peace" ... I mean, can you vote against peace?

The left had a day and a half to get this together, and they did it. And the Dems will do the same here, as you probably know, for one reason or another.

Vote in haste, repent at leisure.

[WSGilcrest]

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