| GREG-STRANGE.COM |
"If you haven't found something strange during the
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
PROVIDING SUBSTANTIVE COMMENTARY ON THE
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
The Terrorists' Gain In Spain Comes Mainly From The Slain
"Maybe the socialists will get our troops out of Iraq and al
Qaeda will forget about Spain, so we will be less frightened." ---
A young Spanish voter quoted in the New York Times on why he
switched from the right-center Popular Party to the winning
Socialists after the terrorist bombing in Madrid.
Perhaps not since the storied days of A.D. 711-718--during
which the Moors marched in and conquered most of Spain like
it had a welcome mat out--has Islam exerted such a sudden
and powerful influence upon a European country. But March
14, 2004 could end up being a day that lives in European and
Spanish infamy for a long time to come. That was the day the
Spanish masses let Islamic terrorists affect the outcome of a
democratic election and voted in an appeasing, anti-Bush,
anti-Blair, antiwar socialist.
Forget about the running of the bulls. Terrorists have run
amok in Spain.
All it took was a few well-placed bombs on some train tracks
in Madrid to get the Spanish to do their best imitation of the
French. The terrorists must be absolutely giddy with their
success in Spain, the magnitude of which they probably never
expected. They must have been whooping it up around the
jihadist campfires that night. They must have been feeling
pretty randy as they fantasized about the virgins who would be
awaiting their glorious and trumpeted entrances into that
sweet Islamic by-and-by.
If the consequences of this pitiful capitulation were not
going to reverberate outside the Iberian Peninsula, then one
might be tempted to say, "Who cares? Let 'em vote for
whatever socialist goofball they want." But now that a timid
European population has caved in to terrorism almost literally
overnight, who believes there won't be more to come? The
Spanish voters--not the most experienced in the ways of
democracy, thanks to Franco's long dictatorial reign--have
virtually guaranteed it. And we're not just talking about
Europe here, which, at this point, many of us frankly could not
care less about, anyway.
Why shouldn't al Qaeda try to pull off an "October surprise"
in America in the hopes of swaying the American electorate
toward its favorite candidate, John F. Kerry? And make no
mistake, Kerry is al Qaeda's man. They know he has a long
history of skepticism about the use of American military power.
They know he has neither the conviction, the perseverance nor
the stomach for prosecuting the only possible winning strategy
against terrorism, which is to take the fight to the terrorists.
In fact, as staggering as it is to contemplate, Kerry and al
Qaeda actually have a number of similar goals--and I'm not
talking about feeding the poor or making the trains run on
time. They both want the U.S. out of Iraq. They both want the
U.S. to treat terrorism as a law enforcement problem rather
than waging a global war against it. They both want the U.S. to
become more like the pacifistic and ever appeasing Europeans.
They both want the U.S. to lay low and try with all its might to
avoid doing anything that might offend or aggravate any part of
the Islamic world.
So imagine that al Qaeda manages to pull off a significant
act of terrorism in the U.S. sometime just before the election.
They know that Kerry would be blaming President Bush 24/7
for not preventing it and would be promising to change the
conditions which cause the more fanatical followers of the
"religion of peace" to hate us. That would entail things like
leading the U.S. to become a better world citizen, getting right
with our European betters, handing all international problems
over to Kofi Annan and the boys, etc., etc.
In other words, if you just leave out all the jihadist hooey
about infidels and the great Satan, Kerry would basically be
mouthing the al Qaeda line about what our place in the world
ought to be pretty much to a tee.
Final memo to the Spanish people: Remember the Basque
separatists, those guys who have been committing acts of
terrorism in your country for decades in the hopes of being
given their very own goofy little ethnic enclave in the vicinity of
the Spanish/French border? Up till now it's been low key
enough that you've been willing to tolerate it without caving in
to their demands. If I were a Basque separatist now after
seeing what just happened in Madrid, I'd be going big time
jihadist on your butts to get what I want. You have to think
about these kinds of things before you vote to appease.
"Maybe the socialists will get our troops out of Iraq and al
Qaeda will forget about Spain, so we will be less frightened." ---
A young Spanish voter quoted in the New York Times on why he
switched from the right-center Popular Party to the winning
Socialists after the terrorist bombing in Madrid.
Perhaps not since the storied days of A.D. 711-718--during
which the Moors marched in and conquered most of Spain like
it had a welcome mat out--has Islam exerted such a sudden
and powerful influence upon a European country. But March
14, 2004 could end up being a day that lives in European and
Spanish infamy for a long time to come. That was the day the
Spanish masses let Islamic terrorists affect the outcome of a
democratic election and voted in an appeasing, anti-Bush,
anti-Blair, antiwar socialist.
Forget about the running of the bulls. Terrorists have run
amok in Spain.
All it took was a few well-placed bombs on some train tracks
in Madrid to get the Spanish to do their best imitation of the
French. The terrorists must be absolutely giddy with their
success in Spain, the magnitude of which they probably never
expected. They must have been whooping it up around the
jihadist campfires that night. They must have been feeling
pretty randy as they fantasized about the virgins who would be
awaiting their glorious and trumpeted entrances into that
sweet Islamic by-and-by.
If the consequences of this pitiful capitulation were not
going to reverberate outside the Iberian Peninsula, then one
might be tempted to say, "Who cares? Let 'em vote for
whatever socialist goofball they want." But now that a timid
European population has caved in to terrorism almost literally
overnight, who believes there won't be more to come? The
Spanish voters--not the most experienced in the ways of
democracy, thanks to Franco's long dictatorial reign--have
virtually guaranteed it. And we're not just talking about
Europe here, which, at this point, many of us frankly could not
care less about, anyway.
Why shouldn't al Qaeda try to pull off an "October surprise"
in America in the hopes of swaying the American electorate
toward its favorite candidate, John F. Kerry? And make no
mistake, Kerry is al Qaeda's man. They know he has a long
history of skepticism about the use of American military power.
They know he has neither the conviction, the perseverance nor
the stomach for prosecuting the only possible winning strategy
against terrorism, which is to take the fight to the terrorists.
In fact, as staggering as it is to contemplate, Kerry and al
Qaeda actually have a number of similar goals--and I'm not
talking about feeding the poor or making the trains run on
time. They both want the U.S. out of Iraq. They both want the
U.S. to treat terrorism as a law enforcement problem rather
than waging a global war against it. They both want the U.S. to
become more like the pacifistic and ever appeasing Europeans.
They both want the U.S. to lay low and try with all its might to
avoid doing anything that might offend or aggravate any part of
the Islamic world.
So imagine that al Qaeda manages to pull off a significant
act of terrorism in the U.S. sometime just before the election.
They know that Kerry would be blaming President Bush 24/7
for not preventing it and would be promising to change the
conditions which cause the more fanatical followers of the
"religion of peace" to hate us. That would entail things like
leading the U.S. to become a better world citizen, getting right
with our European betters, handing all international problems
over to Kofi Annan and the boys, etc., etc.
In other words, if you just leave out all the jihadist hooey
about infidels and the great Satan, Kerry would basically be
mouthing the al Qaeda line about what our place in the world
ought to be pretty much to a tee.
Final memo to the Spanish people: Remember the Basque
separatists, those guys who have been committing acts of
terrorism in your country for decades in the hopes of being
given their very own goofy little ethnic enclave in the vicinity of
the Spanish/French border? Up till now it's been low key
enough that you've been willing to tolerate it without caving in
to their demands. If I were a Basque separatist now after
seeing what just happened in Madrid, I'd be going big time
jihadist on your butts to get what I want. You have to think
about these kinds of things before you vote to appease.