Monday, March 15, 2004
Ah, the joys of last minute guilty pleas...
Bottom line, here I am...and the big story this weekend is Spain, where Zapatero and the Socialists come from behind at the last minute and everyone is wondering what role the GPEB attack on 3/11 played.
Karol and Peter over at Alarming News see it as a victory for Al-Qaeda. Tacitus agrees in many words, and the usually verbose Steven Den Beste agrees in far fewer. And lest you think this was all right wing bloviation, I might add that Calpundit says much the same thing. Finally, read Jeff Jarvis' eloquent take on the subject.
But we are open to differing points of view here at the Crosblog, unless you're talking about Pauly Shore. (He sucks. Only fools and communists believe otherwise.) Arguing that Al-Qaeda didn't necessarily win squat in Spain, I present Dawn, following up on a point she made here. Lest I be accused of sending a fair maiden into battle unaided, I draft Jacob Levy at the Volokh Conspiracy to provide logistical support.
I'm sure anyone with basic math skills can count the links and see where I fall. In Zapatero's defense, I will note that the Spanish had adequate reason to be upset with his handling of the affair, specifically, his rush to blame the Basques. Here's a good post making the point that Aznar may have appeared to be shifting the blame where it didn't belong for political reasons, which would be a perfectly legitimate reason to vote him out. If true, it would mean Aznar and company weren't reliable in the war on terror, which was what they were running on.
That being said, I cannot conceive of how the Osama and his fellow GPEB's are not celebrating right now. The pro-war party was winning in Spain. A bomb went off. The pro-war party lost. How can they not take any message from that but the bomb scared the Spanish away from supporting the people who will fight Al-Qaeda? Can anyone seriously claim that voters who were inclined to support the Popular Party suddenly moved away because the Socialists had a better argument on European Monetary Policy? (Wild-ass guess: They don't.)
The bomb changed the game, and from appearances, it changed the game in Al-Qaeda's favor. Why not detonate bombs in Japan, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, or anywhere else there's a chance to replace someone who wants to destroy Al-Qaeda with someone who thinks a reasonable deal can be made? Don't get me wrong, the game can be changed back, and the man who can change it is Zapatero. He can, if he wants, outline plans that make it clear that Spain is not backing off from the fight. I suppose he doesn't have to do it Bush's way if he doesn't want, but I have yet to hear a clear alternative that has any chance of an Al-Qaeda free world.
Of course, if he takes a strong stance, the GPEB's might decide that Spain hasn't learned its lesson. And the choice is whether we fight them now or let our kids fight them several years down the line.
Bottom line, here I am...and the big story this weekend is Spain, where Zapatero and the Socialists come from behind at the last minute and everyone is wondering what role the GPEB attack on 3/11 played.
Karol and Peter over at Alarming News see it as a victory for Al-Qaeda. Tacitus agrees in many words, and the usually verbose Steven Den Beste agrees in far fewer. And lest you think this was all right wing bloviation, I might add that Calpundit says much the same thing. Finally, read Jeff Jarvis' eloquent take on the subject.
But we are open to differing points of view here at the Crosblog, unless you're talking about Pauly Shore. (He sucks. Only fools and communists believe otherwise.) Arguing that Al-Qaeda didn't necessarily win squat in Spain, I present Dawn, following up on a point she made here. Lest I be accused of sending a fair maiden into battle unaided, I draft Jacob Levy at the Volokh Conspiracy to provide logistical support.
I'm sure anyone with basic math skills can count the links and see where I fall. In Zapatero's defense, I will note that the Spanish had adequate reason to be upset with his handling of the affair, specifically, his rush to blame the Basques. Here's a good post making the point that Aznar may have appeared to be shifting the blame where it didn't belong for political reasons, which would be a perfectly legitimate reason to vote him out. If true, it would mean Aznar and company weren't reliable in the war on terror, which was what they were running on.
That being said, I cannot conceive of how the Osama and his fellow GPEB's are not celebrating right now. The pro-war party was winning in Spain. A bomb went off. The pro-war party lost. How can they not take any message from that but the bomb scared the Spanish away from supporting the people who will fight Al-Qaeda? Can anyone seriously claim that voters who were inclined to support the Popular Party suddenly moved away because the Socialists had a better argument on European Monetary Policy? (Wild-ass guess: They don't.)
The bomb changed the game, and from appearances, it changed the game in Al-Qaeda's favor. Why not detonate bombs in Japan, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, or anywhere else there's a chance to replace someone who wants to destroy Al-Qaeda with someone who thinks a reasonable deal can be made? Don't get me wrong, the game can be changed back, and the man who can change it is Zapatero. He can, if he wants, outline plans that make it clear that Spain is not backing off from the fight. I suppose he doesn't have to do it Bush's way if he doesn't want, but I have yet to hear a clear alternative that has any chance of an Al-Qaeda free world.
Of course, if he takes a strong stance, the GPEB's might decide that Spain hasn't learned its lesson. And the choice is whether we fight them now or let our kids fight them several years down the line.
