Some thoughts about Spain.

Ok, the socialist party won election in Spain and the lackeys at Fox News, especially on Fox and Friends, are saying this is a victory for the terrorists. The only way this holds water is if the war in Iraq is associated with terrorism. Obviously it is not considering the Al Queda is just now rearing its ugly head in Iraq. Also, Spanish elections of of the Socialist party mean a victory for the terrorists if the new Prime Minister doesn't fight terrorism. But, shortly after victory he said, "My most immediate priority will be to fight terrorism," as reported by Foxnews. Remember, in Afghanistan, the French and Germans make up the second largest military presence in there next to the U.S. Also, it should be noted that the Socialist party in Spain that was elected in not Socialist in the way it is being made out to be, check out This Modern World, http://www.thismodernworld.com/weblog/mtarchives/week_2004_03_14.html#001392.

Edited: Bad link.

My own take at this is at my group blog
http://blog.monkeymask.net/

"the terrorist won" is the medias way of simplifying the issues in Spain for digestion of the 3rd grade mentality of the American viewer.

The issues are more complicated and nuanced to be summed up in such a simplistic phrase. They don't take into account that:

a) almost 90% of the Spanish electorate didn't want Spain involved in Iraq to begin with; and,
b) The Spanish were angry that their government immediately tred to spin the attacks as the work of the Basque Separatist Movement to try to deflect criticism, hence trying to manipulate the election, and;
c) Making them a target for Al Queda terrorism.

All things added together spelled defeat for Anzar...the terrorist didn't win, democracy won.

:kick:

reaction to being attacked by terrorists except in the aftermath of 9/11 where a stunned US Congress and population reacted in fear and the rest of the world reacted in sympathy. Since that time the world is waking up to the possibility that Al Qaeda is a CIA asset, that the real motivation of the Bushistas and their allies is world conquest and that they use terror and other methods of fear mongering to accomplish these ends.

Bush's strategy for capturing hearts and minds is obsolete and he doesn't have any new ideas. It was Wolfowitz who unwittingly showed the Bushistas hand after the bombing of the UN in Baghdad when he commented that this would probably get the UN serious about fighting "the enemy". Terrorists cannot be fought with war; terrorism must be investigated as a criminal act and Bush has done everything to impede that process. Ditto for the war on drugs. Labeling these things acts of war instead of criminal acts is what Orwell's 1984 did with Emmanuel Golstein. The goal is to externalize the threat and get people accustomed to perma-war. THAT, IMO, is what Bush is after. He doesn't care about winning in Iraq or any other campaign, just in getting as much crazy shit happening as possible, then making money on phony attempts at making the peace. Chaos Capitalism.