ETA Drops its Weapons

If George “LBJ” Bush were fighting a real war against terrorism, rather than one against Fascislam, he would have had to put troops in Northern Spain and Southwestern France to deal with Euskadi Ta Askatasuna. ETA is the name of the Basque terrorist/freedom fighters in the Basque language, which seems to be unrelated to every other human tongue. Fortunately for Spain, France and the Basques, he kept his incompetent fingers out of that particular pie, which allowed for local solutions to arise. Earlier this week, ETA announced a permanent cease-fire effective today. Wisdom wins.

Founded in 1959 to secure a socialist, independent Basque republic, ETA’s violence against Franco’s Spain could be seen as a continuation the Spanish Civil War. The Basques and Catalonians were the last hold outs against the Phalange, that is the pro-Mussolini, pro-Hitler, bunch of murdering thugs lead by Generalissimo Francisco Franco. Until the death of Franco and the restoration of the constitutional monarchy, decent people could excuse ETA's violence because there was no ballot alternative to the bullet.

For 31 years, though, ETA continued its violent resistance to Spain’s democratic government, and to a lesser degree France’s. According to the Financial Times, “ETA has killed 812 people in the course of its long, low-intensity guerrilla war. Many more Basques have lived for years with ETA death threats, while businessmen have suffered extortion in the guise of “revolutionary taxes”. Really, 812 dead over three plus decades? The Bloods and the Crips in Compton are more lethal. And ETA came to realize in the 1990s that murder wasn’t going to get it what it wanted. It took up resistance to the Leizaran highway and the nuke plant at Lemoiz in a broad-front strategy. ETA also took on drug traffickers as “corrupters of Basque youth,” but allegations against ETA for drug dealing to buy arms have the ring of truth. Illegal drugs help fund terrorism all over the world.

That is all over, now, if the three hooded dudes at the press conference are to be believed. They explained that ETA’s mission now was “to promote a democratic process in Euskal Herria [the Basque territories] in order to build a new framework within which our rights as a people are recognized, and guarantee the opportunity to develop all political options in the future.”

Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was cautious in welcoming the move. “After so many years of horror and terror, any peace process will be long and difficult,” he said. “We are all duty-bound to take part and I hope I can count on all political parties in this matter. Where before we were united in the shock of horror, I hope we will now be united in hope.” “United in hope” is not a bad banner for all sides to adopt.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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