Inviting Terror to Supper
By Marni Soupcoff
It's now official. Spain has elected its Socialist party to power, throwing out the ruling center-right Popular Party (PP), which had stood beside the U.S. in the war in Iraq.
So, what happened? The PP was leading in the polls and widely expected to win Sunday's general election. But then a series of explosions shook Madrid's commuter trains, killing hundreds, and al-Qaeda emerged as the leading suspect. It looked as though they had arranged the attack to seek vengeance for Spain's support of the Iraq war. Next thing you know, the Spaniards had headed to the ballot box and vaulted the Socialists to power.
This is a sad reaction from a people who at first appeared to be so strong and defiant in the face of brutal terrorist attacks.
After all, rather than cowering in their homes, millions of Spaniards took to the streets to protest the bombings. Spain's King Juan Carlos spoke eloquently to his people about remaining united and strong in the face of the deadly explosions. And the government vowed firmly to find and bring those responsible to justice. The Spaniards seemed unwilling to be cowed by the terrorists' bloody scare tactics.
And then they voted.
By electing the Socialists, the Spanish sent a clear message to Osama bin Laden and his associates: if you hit us where it hurts, we'll do what you say. Suddenly, bombing innocent civilians emerges as an effective means of changing the outcome of an election. And partnering with the United States emerges as a deadly venture.
Or so it seems on the surface. Of course, neither statement need be true if the people of the world show the strength and backbone required to stand up to the terrorists--the sort of unyielding show of force one might have thought would seem obviously necessary given the lessons of history. (All day, posters on conservative bulletin board sites have been asking how one says "Neville Chamberlain" in Spanish.)
But the Spanish have certainly set a poor example in this regard. Incoming Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has already promised to bring Spanish troops home from Iraq in July. Within four days of being targeted, then, the Spanish people have reversed course and done exactly what they believe their attackers want.
Of course, at this point, no one is certain that al-Qaeda is behind the Madrid attacks (though it's certainly beginning to look that way). But for purposes of this discussion, actual guilt is beside the point. The key is that the perception that al-Qaeda had hit Madrid seeking retribution for Spain's support of the war in Iraq was enough to cause the Spanish to run screaming for a government that wouldn't upset Mr. Bin Laden. This message is bound to come through to al-Qaeda loud and clear, regardless of whether or not they actually set off the train bombs. Either it's a reward for a job well done or a handy blueprint for what to do in the future for the murderous terrorists. Neither scenario is a good one.
Ultimately, as columnist Mark Steyn has so articulately pointed out, appeasing al-Qaeda is not a strategy that will ever work in the long run: "[Y]ou can stick your head in the sand and paint a burqa on your butt. But they'll blow it up anyway." However, attempting such appeasement will have the effect of prolonging al-Qaeda's presence and power since it, by definition, subtracts from the efforts to eliminate the group. And the longer al-Qaeda exists, the more innocent lives will be lost as the terrorists wage their deadly war against the West.
For this contribution, the Spanish voters should be ashamed. They have met terror, looked it bravely in the eye, then invited it to stay to supper and asked what they could do to make it more comfortable. Such a choice is demeaning to the Spaniards who died in the bombings, painting their lives as nothing more than the cheap price a terrorist needs to pay to achieve his ends. And such a choice raises the bar on terrorist acts the world over.
When they cast their ballots yesterday, the Spanish made a vote for which we will all, eventually, pay the price.
Marni Soupcoff's column appears on Monday at TAEmag.com.
