resurrectionsong

March 15, 2004

Meet Spain's New Prime Minister

What we all most feared has now been made official by Spain's new Prime Minister Elect, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

Pulling a major ally from the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, Spain's prime minister-elect will withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq in the coming months, a Socialist Party spokesman said.

Oddly, Zapatero has his own ideas about waging war against terror--it just isn't very coherent.

The surprise victor in the election, Zapatero vowed that fighting terrorism would be his first priority as he sets about creating an administration "that will work for peace."
[...]
"I am going to fight the violence that also is attacking other nations in this world," he told reporters.

For that he was asking for the support of the Spanish people, he said.

"I want to create an alliance against violence and all kinds of terrorism," he said. "I don't want to create my own war."

Zapatero plans, then, to fight against terrorism by ignoring the act of war perpetrated against his country. His capitulation is an admission of wrong doing on a national level--a greeting card to Jihadists saying "We were wrong to pull down a dictator, and the bombs that you planted taught us the error of our ways. The two hundred dead and thousands injured were really the jolt we needed to understand the error of our ways. Please accept our sincere apologies."

The rest of his words are just typical political fluff. He can talk about "fighting" terrorism and violence, but he has just turned away from the allies who are doing precisely that. His claim that he doesn't want to "create [his] own war" is admirable for a national leader; less admirable is the desire to run away from acts of war committed against your nation.

Read the story.

Posted by zombyboy at March 15, 2004 07:12 AM | TrackBack

Comments

"I want to create an alliance against violence and all kinds of terrorism."

Ummm, ahhh, hmmm... Maybe I missed something, but isn't Spain currently in an alliance against terrorism? Isn't his intention of pulling troops out of Iraq an abandonment of that alliance?

Bush's cultural war actually had me considering voting against him in November. Spain's actions have reminded me that the best thing that we can do right now is to press on with the War on Terror, even is we have to do it alone.

Posted by: StumpJumper at March 15, 2004 07:50 AM

Standing fast in the fire obviously isn't in this guy's mind. Fact is, radical Islam lives in a romanticized and twisted version of the past, and in that past as well as in consensual reality, Islam ruled that part of the world. Many Arabs have never forgiven Spain for the loss of Al-Andalus - the region today called Andalusia. Spain was a logical target by radical Islamist standards for that alone by way of payback for seeming historical wrongs; being our ally didn't bring this on them, being Spanish did. Maybe Zapatero thinks that if he runs back inside and hides under the bed, the bad men he told to stay off the lawn won't burn down his house.

Posted by: inkgrrl at March 15, 2004 09:07 AM

"All we are saying, is give peace a chance . . ."

What!? This is his big plan for reducing terrorism?

No amount of "understanding their plight", or "reaching out to them" is going to solve this problem.

I think the Spanish solution will only increase terrorism in their state, not reduce it.

Posted by: Shad0runr at March 15, 2004 04:50 PM

But think of all the Kum-ba-yah Brownie Points® he's piling up!

Posted by: McGehee at March 15, 2004 07:04 PM

O.K. so I am really disappointed that Mr. Shoemaker (Zapatero translated into English) won the election. But I can't help but think of Nancy Sinatra's song, "These Boots Were Made for Walkin'":

"These boots were made for walking,
And that's just what they'll do
One of these days these boots
Are gonna walk all over you."

I just see the irony in his name and his plans- he's making a pair of boots to walk all over the people of his country.

Posted by: Rae at March 15, 2004 10:42 PM

Yes -- a pair of boots that will be worn proudly by the very same Musloons responsible for the Madrid bombings.

Posted by: McGehee at March 16, 2004 01:23 PM