Monday, March 15, 2004

Wrong Response: It appears that Al Qaeda has successfully hijacked the Spanish electorate. According to The Washington Post, polls indicated that the ruling Popular Party was well on its way to win re-election, despite its support of the U.S. President Bush and the war in Iraq.

Then when the public found out that Al Qaeda was behind the bombing of Spanish commuter trains on Thursday as punishment for Spain's involvement in Iraq, the electorate gave into fear and voted for the Socialist Party. The newly elected government plans a quick withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq, which the incoming Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero calls a "disaster".

Al Qaeda has threatened that if Spain doesn't stop supporting the United States, then "more and more blood will flow." Now Al Qaeda got what it wanted. This victory has only emboldened the terrorists. The Spanish people have put themselves and many other people in danger by giving into the terrorists.

Italy, England, Australia, and the other participating countries -- especially the United States -- will be in grave danger of attacks, probably soon before their major elections.

I'm not saying that if people don't vote for Bush or for people who agree with Bush, then they're supporting Al Qaeda. But these terrorists are trying to affect public policy through fear and murder.

We cannot give into terrorists' demands. There's no way we can stop all terrorist attacks from occurring. Another one will happen here in the United States. But we can stop the fear from paralyzing us. We need to attack the terrorists and the countries that support them, both politically and militarily. If we offer only appeasement, we are encouraging Al Qaeda to spill more blood.

Al Qaeda and other Islamic extremists have declared war on Western civilization, and they will murder as many people as possible to scare us into adopting an Islamo-fascist state. These are extremists who are killing by the hundreds and thousands. Yet some people blame Bush for this. It's not Bush's fault these attacks keep occurring. Bush wants to fight these people head on. Al Qaeda is weaker as a result, but not yet defeated. And if we begin to appease, that will only make them stronger again.