SWLiP Is Not So Encouraged

The Professor is encouraged by incoming Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's pronouncement:

"My most immediate priority is to beat all forms of terrorism," said Zapatero, asking for a minute's silence in honour of the 200 people killed in the bombings on four packed commuter trains.

SWLiP is not encouraged at all by this statement, which seems like a sign of moral equivocation. Phraseology such as "all forms of terrorism" or "terrorism in all its forms" is commonly used by Islamist apologists and Left-wing radicals as double speak for condemning Israeli and U.S. military action against terrorism. This UAE statement is typical:

The UAE yesterday reiterated its condemnation of all forms of terrorism and called for the holding of an international conference to identify terrorism and draw a line between terrorism and legitimate resistance against foreign occupation.

Zapatero undoubtedly understands the meaning his words will have to the Left and to the Islamists.

UPDATE: This is not surprising:

Zapatero said Monday he would probably withdraw Spain's 1,300 troops from the "disaster" in Iraq and attacked U.S. President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

He also indicated a swing away from Madrid's recent pro-American stance toward a "pro-European" foreign policy.

"The war has been a disaster, the occupation continues to be a disaster. It has only caused violence," Zapatero said.

"There must be consequences. There has been one already -- the election result. The second will be that the Spanish troops will come back," he said. "Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush must do some reflection and self-criticism. You can't bomb a people, you can't organize a war with lies," he told Spain's Cadena SER radio station.

This must be an euphoric moment for the global Left.

The Islamists are undoubtedly happy to see this, too:

UPDATE: LGF has a follow up on Zapateros' likely "nuanced" approach to fighting terrorism.

Although I don't read German, elfengleich seems to be making a comparison between what I wrote above and various comments by Colin Powell (I could be wrong about this). What must be understood to new visitors to this blog is that SWLiP does not view Colin Powell as a representative of President Bush's philosophy. Rather, Colin Powell represents a segment of the government that would, if it had its way, align American policy more closely to that of Western Europe.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Antoine Clark of Samizdata is more hopeful.

Comments

[Roger L. Simon]

Now I'm really depressed.

[Samuel]

As usual I agree with Roger, how can I be happy about this?

[ic]

"to identify terrorism and draw a line between terrorism and legitimate resistance against foreign occupation"
According to ETA, Spain is occupying their soil, thus their attack is legitimate resistance against foreign occupation. I'm so glaad I don't live in Europe.

[Susan]

Agreed. Spot on. "Terrorism in all its forms" is leftist code speak for putting terrorists and their victims who fight back on the same moral plane.

[Ed]

The moral equivalence malarky will fool the Spanish electorate for awhile...until the next attack. It's not going to deter the islamists. I hope that good police work prevents the attempts from being successful, but that they're close enough to make Spanish votors realize they're in the cross-hairs no matter what.

[Matt in France]

Remember when "France" crumpled under the weak leadership of Petain in the early months of WWII? Well, not all of France tucked their tails and ran according to the advice of their government. Many hundreds of citoyens entered the Resistance, risking their lives against the Nazi SS and the Vichy secret police.

There's evidence that the Spainish political parties were using the attacks to gain political advantage. Some voters bought the rhetoric. But, don't shortchange all Spainards, because of the defeatism of a few.

[Chuck]

Matt in France: you mean "because of the defeatism of the largest plurality of Spanish voters", right?

That's not exactly "a few", you know.

[Dwayne]

I think Socialists and Islamists are in collusion.

Socialist typically believe that the ends justify the means. This often results in eco-terrorism, vandalism and the like. The Socialists/Leftists hatred of America and Pres. Bush is so intense that it's the prefect motivating force to cause the Socialists/Leftists to assist Islamic terrorists in order to gain politically. After all, the ends justify the means.

[Bill Ewing]

Gleaned from Mark Steyn (www.theaustralian.news.com.au) via Glenn Reynolds (www.insatpundit.com, 15 March 2004):

"So the choice for pluralist democracies is simple: You can join Bush in taking the war to the terrorists, to their redoubts and sponsoring regimes. Despite the sneers that terrorism is a phenomenon and you can't wage war against a phenomenon, in fact you can – as the Royal Navy did very successfully against the malign phenomena of an earlier age, piracy and slavery.

Or you can stick your head in the sand and paint a burqa on your butt. But they'll blow it up anyway."

Rather a cogent comment, I would say.

[PJ]

Yes, depressing words, and Hezbollah is cheering. Even a reference to the old reliable "self-criticism" in other words, how we caused the attacks, how Spain caused the attacks. Sickening. I shudder to think of how cruel their wakeup call is going to be.

[ed]

And we're still in NATO ... why? Why are we to depend upon these gutless cowards? France won't support us. Germany sneered at us. Spain has turned it's back on us. The list goes on and on. The only reason for NATO's current existence is that it gives European countries a free safety net so they can continue to cut defense spending. All the while they get to depend on American taxpayers to defend their sorry ass. On top of which we have NATO countries that use American military assets to conduct operations. Does anyone wonder *why* no European country has heavy airlift capability? How is it that they've gone without for so many decades?

Because they use America's military assets at will. We get to pay for them and for European countries use of them. We pay for the gas and the aircraft when France want's to fly it's paratroopers to some hotspot around the globe.

Time to cut these useless fools off at the knees. Abandon NATO. Let the world know that Europe is on their own and that we won't intervene in another land war there.

Screw'em.

[Albert]

Phraseology such as "all forms of terrorism" or "terrorism in all its forms" is commonly used by Islamist apologists and Left-wing radicals as double speak for condemning Israeli and U.S. military action against terrorism.

You are so presumptuous... Why do you Americans always suppose that everybody is set on you? In this case, Zapatero clearly intended to cover both AQ (which is what worries all you non-Spaniards) and ETA (which have been killing us Spaniards for more than 30 years).

[pragmatist]

Zapatero will cause his own problems. Spain was invited only for political reasons. The US didn't stop when Turkey pulled out. Turkey gets a Kurd state next door. US will probably still help Spain. If not then Zapatero will complain. Kerry will have to be careful about crowing. If voters feel insecure about terror Bush wins.