Three Eleven

15 March 2004


Madrid Hit by Rush Hour Bomb

On March 11, 2004, every civilized human being became a Spaniard. In a rush hour attack not unlike that in Moscow on February 6, terrorists blew up four trains during rush hour as Madrilenos tried to get through another day. By the next day, 198 had not made it, while around 400 were injured, some of whom will not survive. A shadowy Fascislamic group claimed credit, but the Basque group ETA may have committed the atrocity. For the dead it doesn't matter much, but for the survivors, it matters a great deal.

If an al-Qaeda group is responsible, then Spain is paying the penalty for backing Mr. Bush's war in Iraq. Prior to the war, there was little linkage between Usama bin Laden and Saddamite regime in Iraq (whose Ba'athist brand of socialism was anathema to the perverters of Islam in Al-Qaeda). Since the capture of Baghdad by US forces, though, Iraq has become a magnet for "foreign fighters" who see friendly territory there from which to work and easy targets in the shape of US troops and their Iraqi supporters.

Should ETA be the guilty party, this represents an exponential escalation in the feeble struggle to free the Basque homeland from rule from Madrid. ETA has tried to create an independent state in northeastern Spain for decades, only to fail time and again because the nation is not economically viable and because a certain degree of autonomy exists in the region. Such an escalation of violence can only mean desperation on the part of the die-hards in ETA.

The difference lies in how civilized Spain and its allies respond. If the Fascislamists are behind these attacks, Europe will have internal pressure to act more in concert with the United States to roll up what remains of any terrorist networks. To a degree, this effort has been hobbled by the divisions between the US and its European allies stemming from the poor relations brought on by the Bush administration's mishandling of US foreign policy since September 2002.

If ETA committed these attacks, Spain can and should act alone to arrest or kill those individuals involved. At the moment, Spain is a country in shock from a serious wound to the national spirit. A quick and decisive move against ETA, ETA supporters and suspected financiers will have wide-ranging support from across the world. It would be a pity if the new Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, burned up the good will his country possesses today the way the Bush administration destroyed the silver lining of global sympathy in the dark cloud of September 11, 2001 by going after the wrong bunch.

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