A job for Don Quixote

The Washington Times ^ | April 9, 2007 | Suzanne Fields

[3AngelaD]

MADRID -- When most Americans hear the word Basque they think "terrorist." It's not quite fair, but that's what many Spaniards think, too. Most Spaniards -- large majorities, by the polls -- blame not only the bombers, but the prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, as well for his coddling the terrorists..

A terrorist organization called Basque Fatherland and Liberty, or ETA for short, took responsibility for the car bomb. ETA is often compared to the Irish Republican Army, but the comparison is not exact. What the two organizations have held in common is their ability to kill without conscience. ETA is a leftist, separatist group that demands an independent Basque state...

The government only last month dedicated an enormous glass memorial to the 191 slain and 1,800 injured at the Atocha railway station three years ago, and King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia were there, along with Mr. Zapatero, but it hardly mellowed public antagonism toward the party in power. The Atocha Station terrorists turned out to be Islamist, angry that Spanish troops were part of George W. Bush's "coalition of the willing in Iraq," but the Spanish public is weary of living in fear of mayhem. They want all terrorists treated harshly...

Ironies abound. Mr. Zapatero and the Socialists were regarded as having no chance to win office in 2004, but the Atocha Station bombings changed all that three days before the parliamentary elections. On winning the election, he quickly withdrew every Spanish soldier from Iraq...

Jose Aznar, the prime minister deposed by the Atocha Station bombers, sees signs of revivals of deep political division. He tells the Wall Street Journal that the Zapatero government gave the Madrid bombers what they wanted by withdrawing Spanish troops from Iraq, and he's appeasing further violence by courting ETA...

[3AngelaD]

More like a job for El Cid. Spanish public wakes up, smells cafe, realizes the mistake they made electing Rodriguez Zapatero. Only problem I have with what she says is that they didn't vote out Aznar, he had already said he was going to step down and let another person from his party take the lead. He was and is a great man, and should be the person leading the U.N.

[Popocatapetl]

Spain is far more fractured than it lets on. I suspect this is why they so adamantly hang on to the Basque region, because if it were to be successful in its efforts to become an independent nation, other parts of Spain would surely follow.

But how much splintering would take an expert to guess. At least Catalonia would be right up at the front of the line, but I suspect one or two other regions would consider it.