Did terrorists alter the fate of Spain’s national election?
Unfortunately, it seems so.
The Socialist party of Spain delivered a dramatic upset to the favoured Popular party with a narrow victory in this Sunday’s election, and many are citing Thursday’s terrorist attacks as the principal reason.
The logic is that outgoing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar incited the wrath of Al Qaeda by staunchly allying himself with Bush and sending over 1,000 Spanish troops into Iraq. Had he not sent in troops, Spain wouldn’t be an Al Qaeda target. So in order to take Spain off the hit list a new PM was needed, one who would bring the troops home. Enter Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
Had the attacks not happened, the Popular party would have likely been re-elected. The real issue was not the deployment then, but the perceived link between the deployment and the bombings. It seems like the Spanish people have blamed their government for the attacks.
But in doing so, they are forgetting to do the one logical thing: blame the terrorists. They have served Spain’s foreign policy up to Al Qaeda on a silver platter.
After all, how could the government of Spain possibly be held responsible?
By that logic, the terrorists are not responsible for their actions; they were just provoked (poor things!) But no provocation should justify terror.
This suggests that using terror to achieve political ends isn’t wrong; rather the fact that it is aimed at me is wrong. It takes “not in my backyard” to a whole new level, and it’s going to end up making the world a scarier place.
Of course a country’s elections and undoubtedly their foreign policy will be influenced by terrorism, as Israel’s is, as America’s is. That’s not the issue. The issue is that the Spanish people have mistakenly identified the deployment of troops as the only reason they were attacked on Thursday, and on the basis of that connection, have changed the course of their country.
Not only does it suggest to terrorists that terror does indeed achieve palpable political goals, but it is also based on faulty logic, the logic that the deployment of troops was the only reason Spain was targeted.
That’s like saying if America turned inward and disengaged with Iraq they’d no longer be a target.
Would there really be a collective sigh of relief if the West disengaged?
Heed the message found on the videotape purportedly linked to the attacks: “If you don’t stop your injustices, more and more blood will flow and these attacks will seem very small compared to what can occur in what you call terrorism.”
Key word: injustices.
What constitutes an injustice in the eyes of Al Qaeda? Is it really only being an ally of Bush, or sending troops into Iraq?
I can think of a few other things that might apply: being democratic, being from the West, shopping, women wearing skirts, hell, just living here seems to be enough. After all, Canada was on the hit list and we didn’t support the war in Iraq.
If the Spanish people want their troops out of Iraq then it is the responsibility of their government to do it, but let them not naively think that as a result they will be safe.
