The Other Terrorism

The heart, if not the soul, of Spain’s capital, Madrid, is its bustling financial district. Thousands crowd daily into the skyscrapers that overlook the district’s main square. Thousands more shop at a branch of El Corte Inglés (Spain’s Macy’s), attend soccer games at Bernabéu Stadium, or ride the subways, trains, and buses whose lines converge here.

Terrorists had hoped to strike this densely packed urban space in early 2008. But unlike the devastating coordinated suicide bombings of March 11, 2004, which killed 191 train commuters and wounded 1,600, this plot did not originate with al-Qaida or any of its loosely linked affiliates. Nor was it hatched among the 12 militant Muslim Pakistanis arrested in January for allegedly planning suicide bombings in Barcelona’s subways and other strikes in Britain, France, Germany, and Portugal. No, the terrorists who dreamed of creating mayhem in the square were as Spanish as paella, as much a part of the local landscape as flamenco or bullfighting: “Euskadi Ta Askatasuna,” or “Basque Homeland and Freedom,” commonly known as ETA (pronounced “etta”). This is Spain’s “other” terrorism—a Marxoid movement that, for some 50 years, has fought for independence for the 2.5 to 3 million Spaniards of Basque descent.

Like all potential dictators, their potential for tyranny is masked by the minimally right “nationalisms” they hijack and subvert to their real goals.

If that “nationalism” is founded on true distinctions that deserve some respect, Ghandi’s method showed how the members of that group could avoid war and still get their message across.

But unlike the devastating coordinated suicide bombings of March 11, 2004,

It is simply not true. There were no suicide bombers in 3/11.

Moreover, 3/11 has nothing to do with 9/11 or 7/7, but it was inspired by the Bologna station massacre, on August 2nd, 1981, in Italy.

The whole Spanish terrorist problem is inspired in the Italian Strategy of Tension.

I think a lot of Basque’s agree with ETA sentiments but reject their methods and prefer to try to continue to enhance their distinct identity through peaceful change. I think most Basque’s agree that it is that identity and not any particular national affiliation that will serve them most in the long run.

If the Basques agree with ETA sentiments, it is not shown, because they don't vote its political wing, neither the a bit more moderate Basque Nationalist Party when it starts to talk about autodetermination.

There is no such problem in the Basque region, it is not a problem about identity in an area that enjoys a self-government which endows them more autonomy than an American state.

It is, and it has been always, about money and political power. ETA is simply the military branch of the century old Basque industrial oligarchy created to extort the rest of Spaniards, manipulating the political system through a Strategy of Tension.

Look, if they want to be independents, they just have to follow the Kosovo way: call their parliament and vote for secession. That is all... good bye. I won't spent a second of my life going after them.

It is absolutely non-sense that the two richest regions of Spain have developed a nationalist movement unless the century old industrial oligarchies there support them in order to keep their advantage in a Spain that is no longer governed by a dictator.

It is symptomatic that when this situation began to change, it came 3/11.

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