3/11

That's what they're calling yesterday's terror attacks in Madrid, which certainly seem to have affected the Spanish national psyche the same way 9/11 affected America, and the Bali bombings affected Australia.

Iberian Notes still believes ETA carried out the attacks, and throws out the theory that they made it look like an Al-Qaida attack so voters would blame the conservative government for 'making' Spain an Islamofascist target. Already, idiots in Spanish bars are taking the "Aznar fucked up and got us on America's side and now Al Qaeda has bombed us and it's America's fault" line - and it seems to be gaining steam in the international media as well.

This line of thinking - which, I'm sure, will be reflected in a Robert Fisk column any day now - ultimately comes down to this premise: the 3/11 murderers, and their ideological allies, are entitled to a veto over everyone else's foreign, defence and even domestic policies. (I'm convinced it's only a matter of time before something like this happens in France, which loudly opposed the Iraq war, and you can be sure people will say it's ultimately "Chirac's fault" because of the hijab ban in schools.)

No matter how carefully we tread, eventually we're going to do something which ticks off the Islamofascists. America dares to support Israel, Spain takes a strong stand against terror, France bans Islamic garb from public schools...eventually, the "crime" in question may be allowing women to vote, alcohol to be sold, or Jews to hold citizenship. These people cannot be appeased. Period.

A final thought: remember this charming scene from a 2002 "anti-war" demostration in Madrid?

You have to wonder what these ladies are thinking today, assuming they're capable of thinking at all - and assuming they didn't take the train to work yesterday.

Update: read Lileks this morning.

Posted by damian at March 12, 2004 07:52 AM