March 12, 2004
From the desk of Jane Galt:Breaking news on Madrid
The redoubtable Contributor A of Mistakes Were Made has just emailed me this article from ABC (the Spanish ABC, not our television network -- the article is in Spanish). For those without even my desultory command of the Spanish language, it says that the one bomb they recovered intact does not follow ETA's MO.
ETA usually uses Titadine (a sort of dynamite), which they steal in France, and two men linked to ETA were caught last week with a large truck filled with 1,000 pounds of it. The ABC article says, however, that the explosive is not Titadine but some other kind of Spanish manufacture, and the detonators are copper, rather than the aluminum that ETA generally uses. If true, this would be a deep blow to the argument that ETA, rather than an Al-Qaeda linked group, is responsible.
Posted by Jane Galt at March 12, 2004 11:46 AM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound linksMy personal view is that I don't give a leaping frog's ass what group did it, but that the WOT needs to be notched up at least two fold. How many more lives, American or otherwise have to be killed before the rest of society realizes this isn't a threat you can negotiate with? You cannot discuss it ad naseum in the UN. You have to eradicate it with firepower, out smart it with accurate intelligence, and strangle its sources unrelenting diplomatic pressure.
I feel so bad for the people of Spain. I just don't understand how so many people who consider themselves liberal and 'champions of human rights' would rather sit this one out when innocents are murdered in the name of terrorism.
Robb is right. Who gives a shit which terrorists they are. One thing is clear. They are terrorists. Lets find them and those that sponser them and kill them all.
I have always understood the WOT to be just that. Not the war on AlQ but the more general WOT. I always understood it to include the IRA, Tim McVeigh and his ilk, the Unabomber, Japanese cults, the ETA, the Palestinian terrorists and any other scumbags and their supporters who target civilians. This is not a war against beliefs, political or religious. It is a war against a class of tactics. At least I hope it is.
I share Robb's sorrow for the people of Spain. They should know that like 9-11, 3-11 will never be forgotten.
Jim English
Chicago
AltaVista's Babelfish usually does an adequate job (especially with the Romance languages for obvious reasons):
http://babelfish.altavista.com/
I'm sorry, but it really does matter who did this. Is it a purely local group with purely local grievance? Or a worldwise terrorist network who has just extended their campaign into the heart of Europe? Was the letter promising a "black wind of death" strike against America soon genuine or not? The global ramifications of an al-Qaeda strike in Madrid would be enormous. The global ramifications of a stepped-up ETA campaign would be, frankly, modest and confined largely to Spain.
Of course the perpetrators of this deserve swift death, whoever they are. Your outrage, which I share, has its place. But to say ETA is no different than Aum Shinryiko is no different from al-Qaeda is to miss the point. They pose different threats, have different structures, require different tactics to find and destroy. It may be moral clarity to say evil is evil no matter what it looks like, but it is strategic confusion to say that terrorists are terrorists no matter their origin, tactics and aims.
It may be that ETA is getting tactical advice -- and money, and materials -- from al-Qaeda or some group like it.
Contributor A,
My point was to preempt those who would say that since it was ETA it is a Spanish problem. This is the sort of attitude that had American's contributing to the IRA in the past. It is this attitude that prevents America from standing up against the terrorists who target Isreal. Terrorism is a problem the whole civilized world must confront. Of course we should investigate for the reasons that you cite. We should help the Spanish in the ways that they want us to help. What we should not do is say that this terrorism is different because these are nationalists fighting a civil war. As I mentioned, motives should not provide an excuse for barberism. No motive can excuse terrorism. That point must be made clear until terrorism is stamped out worldwide.
Jim English
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