As Maria Farrell noted on Crooked Timber, whether the Spanish public believes Al Qaeda or ETA is responsible for the Madrid bombings will obviously have an influence on the elections today. She was making the case that if the public believes it is ETA, it will strengthen the ruling Popular party and if the public believes it is Al Qaeda, then the Socialists will win.
The Socialist Party has claimed victory, so it certainly appears that the public doesn't believe that ETA is responsible as the demonstations in Madrid last night seemed to confirm. The verbal long knives have come out already: I just heard a Popular Party legislator comment on CNN International that the people of Spain have gone to Munich to appease Hitler. That's beyond wretched excess; it's just plain stupid. it's the same sort of nonsense I heard from the right after 9/11 saying that it was a good thing that George Bush was president for that. Are we supposed to believe that if Al Gore was president, we'd be studying the Koran now?
Only time will tell what can happen, but one thing is clear in Spain: the Popular Party is paying a price for supporting the Iraq War.
Randy:
I was so infuriated by the American comemntariat as well as the pro-PP Spanish bloggers decrying the socialist victory as one appeasment and cowardice etc that I wrote a post in English. I explained that there was 8 years of accumulated baggage and teh last strong was Aznar insistence that it was ETA and be damned the evidence. There are reports that he personaly presured teh UN and some European leaders to go along with the ETA angle. Supposedly Ana Palacio 3 hours into the massacre circulated instructions to the embassies ordring them to say it was ETA.
The elections were PP's to lose and they screwed it up with their contemptous mistrust of thepublic. They took the voters for idiots.
Mind you I'm no supporter of the socialists either I disdain both national parties.
xavier
Posted by: xavier | March 14, 2004 at 10:24 PM
A Socialist victory isn't a problem, nor does it have anything to do with appeasement.
But pulling out of Iraq just days after a huge terrorist attack IS appeasement. Imagine how it looks from the point of view of the "resistance." Kill Spaniards and they pull out of the fight.
Appeasement is defined as follows: The policy of granting concessions to potential enemies to maintain peace.
That's what Spain had in mind. Get out of Iraq and Al Qaeda should leave us alone.
Posted by: Michael J. Totten | March 15, 2004 at 07:35 PM
It's much more complex than that, Michael. Read my next post.
Also, Zapatero has said that he would commit Spanish troops to Iraq under the UN rubric. That's not appeasement.
Posted by: Randy Paul | March 15, 2004 at 08:08 PM
The majority of the people was against the war (90%) before the madrid bombings, so pull out the troops from Iraq is what the people wants.
I do not think that the negative to give or exposde our lives for the oil companies is because we're cowards, it's because we're not stupids.
If Aznar, Bush and other politics want iraqi oil and new world order under their domain, they can go to war themselves.
Posted by: Josep (Barcelona) | March 17, 2004 at 07:34 AM
The majority of the people was against the war (90%) before the madrid bombings, so pull out the troops from Iraq is what the people wants.
I do not think that the negative to give or expose our lives for the oil companies is because we're cowards, it's because we're not stupids.
If Aznar, Bush and other politics want iraqi oil and new world order under their domain, they can go to war themselves.
Posted by: Josep (Barcelona) | March 17, 2004 at 07:35 AM
I have old friends in Madrid and I am trying to find out if they were affected by the bobmbings. Is there a list somewhere of the casualties??
Thanks
Posted by: Hakan | March 25, 2004 at 08:55 AM
http://www.100megsfree3.com/levgen/vics/madridvics.html
i found this list of the deceased. i'm blessed, my friend's name does not appear. i hope it is the same for you.
Posted by: anon | April 24, 2004 at 12:29 AM