QUOTE
Originally posted by fantomas:
Spain has a right to its own sovereignty. As a democracy, it has the right to change its government according to its constitution and laws. It's a testimony to the voters there that they were fed up and changed the government.
Fine, whatever.
But I would understand the new PM's position a bit more if he said he's pulling his troops out of Iraq....but not to bring home--that he's sending them to Afghanistan and to Pakistan where they will root out and kill al-Queda. Capturing the terrorists who did this in Spain isn't enough. The Madrid bombers got their marching orders and funding from al-Queda members outside Spain. The govt owes it to the dead to get back at them--in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, in Indonesia, and anywhere else they can.
The new socialist PM would then say: "We're getting out of Iraq because 90% of us never wanted this in the first place, it's an American adventure that we think has nothing to do with terrorism, we think it's a failure, moreover, we were given bogus reasons to go to war, there wasn't a grave threat and there were no weapons of mass destruction blah, blah, blah. BUT, BUT, BUT we want to direct our own war against terrorism and al-Queda, and we won't leave it at capturing the men (and these are men) who bombed the Madrid train stations. We will get their bosses, and their bosses' bosses, and their bosses' bosses' bosses. And we'll get them in Afghanistan and in Pakistan and in any goddam place they hide. In short, George Bush doesn't have to be the only one taking the risk of wiping out al-Queda. They killed our people. This is our 9/11. We need to let terrorists know that, just like the U.S., our reaction will be to wage a fearsome international war on several fronts against al-Queda. We'll react in just same noble and necessary way the U.S. reacted (we don't want the terrorists to become emboldened, thinking they taught us a lesson), and we'll fight just as hard."
Which, of course, they won't. They won't invest the time, they won't invest the money, they won't risk the lives.
Which leaves men and women from good old U.S. of A. and the UK and a few other places making the world safer for these sweet, well-meaning but ultimately craven folk to march their pointless marches and bitch about the U.S.
Meanwhile our soldiers will die avenging their dead.
[ March 17, 2004, 01:11 PM: Message edited by: TomFord ]