yallknowdatg
03-24-2004, 09:49 PM
Spain got the point
By defaming the Spanish while
Madrid weeps, the Bushites display a sneaking contempt for democracy
by Jonathan
Freedland – The Guardian
Wednesday March 17, 2004
Maybe they think it's
payback time. In 2001, many American conservatives were appalled by the reaction in some
European quarters to 9/11, a reaction crudely summarised as "America had it coming". They
insisted it was grossly insensitive to attack the United States and its foreign policy while
Ground Zero still smouldered. They were right and I took their side, urging people at least to
pause a while before adding greater hurt to an already traumatised nation.
But look
what's happening now. A matter of days after the event branded Europe's 9/11, and
American conservatives - including some of the very people who were so outraged by the
criticisms hurled at the US in September 2001 - have started whacking not just Spanish policy,
but the Spanish people.
Witness David Brooks in yesterday's New York Times,
outraged that the Madrid bombings prompted Spanish voters to "throw out the old government
and replace it with one whose policies are more to al-Qaida's liking. What is the Spanish word
for appeasement?" Rightwing blog artist Andrew Sullivan also raided the 1930s lexicon for the
same, exhausted word: "It seems clear to me that the trend in Europe is now either
appeasement of terror or active alliance with it. It is hard to view the results in Spain as
anything but a choice between Bush and al-Qaida. Al-Qaida won." Not to be outdone, former
Bush speechwriter David Frum, the man who coined "axis of evil", sighed at the weakness of
the Spanish: "People are not always strong. Sometimes they indulge false hopes that by lying
low, truckling, appeasing, they can avoid danger and strife ... And this is what seems to have
happened in Spain."
Perhaps this is how the Bushites hope to avenge what they saw
as European insensitivity two and half years ago, by defaming the Spanish even as Madrid still
weeps. But this assault should not go unanswered if only because, if allowed to settle in the
public mind, it will widen yet further the already yawning transatlantic gulf of misunderstanding.
Put aside the imprecision (and worse) that comes with the abuse of the word
"appeasement": the menace of al-Qaida is real and serious enough without making hyperbolic
comparisons to the Third Reich. Focus instead on the two grave errors that underlie this latest
argument from the right. One is a misunderstanding of democracy, the other is a failure to make
crucial distinctions.
The first mistake is the more surprising, for no word is invoked more
often in support of the "war on terror" than democracy. Yet these insults hurled at the Spanish
show a sneaking contempt for the idea. For surely the Spanish did nothing more on Sunday
than exercise their democratic right to change governments. They elected the Socialist party;
to suggest they voted for al-Qaida is a slur not only on the Spanish nation but on the
democratic process itself, implying that when terrorists strike political choice must end.
It comes from the same mentality that prompted Republicans in 2002 to run TV ads
against the Democratic senator Max Cleland, who lost three limbs in the Vietnam war, placing
his face alongside those of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. It is the same thinking that
led one Republican congressman to quip recently that a vote in November for John Kerry will
be a vote for Osama. It is a bid to reshape the political landscape, so that parties of the right
stand on one side and all the rest are lumped in with al-Qaida. The tactic is McCarthyite, the
natural extension of the bullying insistence that, in President Bush's own words, "You are
either with us or you're with the terrorists". If that is the choice, then there is no choice: it is a
mandate for a collection of one-party states.
But this is not the heart of the matter. The
right's greater error is its failure to distinguish between the war against al-Qaida and the war on
Iraq. About 90% of the Spanish electorate were against the latter; there is no evidence that
they were, or are, soft on the former. On the contrary, there have been two mass
demonstrations of Spanish opinion in the past few days: let no one forget that 36 hours before
the election, about 11 million Spaniards took to the streets to swear their revulsion at terrorism.
It takes some cheek to accuse a nation like that of weakness and appeasement.
The
Spaniards showed they knew the difference between the struggle against al-Qaida and the
conflict in Iraq. It is hardly a shock that this distinction is lost on the likes of Frum and company:
the Bush administration worked tirelessly to conflate the two, constantly eliding Saddam and
9/11 even though the president himself has had to admit no evidence links the two.
The Spanish electorate were not voting for a cave-in to al-Qaida. On the contrary,
many of those who opposed the war in Iraq did so precisely because they feared it would
distract from the more urgent war against Islamist fanaticism. (Witness the US military resources
pulled off the hunt for Bin Laden in Afghanistan and diverted to Baghdad.) Nor was it
appeasement to suggest that the US-led invasion of an oil-rich, Muslim country would make
al-Qaida's recruitment mission that much easier.
Of course, this is not to argue that if
only the war had not happened then Bin Laden and his henchmen would have laid down their
arms. Al-Qaida's leaders are murderous, guilty of the most wicked acts; nothing we can do will
reach them. But that is not true of the many thousands, perhaps millions, drawn to the message
of extreme Islamism; the people who would never plant bombs, but might cheer when they go
off. These are the hearts and minds that have to be won over if the war on terror is ever to be
won. To assert that the conflict over Iraq made that task harder is not a surrender; it is a
statement of the obvious.
It may be comforting, but this struggle cannot be won by
painting the world in black and white, with America as the good guy and everyone else cast as
terrorists or their allies. It will require nimble, subtle thinking - constantly making awkward but
essential distinctions.
So, yes, it is quite true that al-Qaida will be chillingly gratified by
the Spanish result but, no, that does not mean that Spaniards voted for al-Qaida. Similarly, it is
quite possible to be strongly opposed to the Iraq adventure and militantly in favour of the war
against Bin Laden - indeed the two sentiments can be strongly linked. There is a difference,
too, between appeasing men of violence and seeking to limit their appeal, just as the leaders
of global terror must be separated from those who could become their followers. Islam is no
monolith, nor is the west, and all the fine gradations within these categories matter enormously.
The world has never looked more like a complex knot, and it will take precision and
patience to untangle it. Wrenching away at it in fury will only make the problem harder - and
our lives more dangerous.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1170857,00.html
By defaming the Spanish while
Madrid weeps, the Bushites display a sneaking contempt for democracy
by Jonathan
Freedland – The Guardian
Wednesday March 17, 2004
Maybe they think it's
payback time. In 2001, many American conservatives were appalled by the reaction in some
European quarters to 9/11, a reaction crudely summarised as "America had it coming". They
insisted it was grossly insensitive to attack the United States and its foreign policy while
Ground Zero still smouldered. They were right and I took their side, urging people at least to
pause a while before adding greater hurt to an already traumatised nation.
But look
what's happening now. A matter of days after the event branded Europe's 9/11, and
American conservatives - including some of the very people who were so outraged by the
criticisms hurled at the US in September 2001 - have started whacking not just Spanish policy,
but the Spanish people.
Witness David Brooks in yesterday's New York Times,
outraged that the Madrid bombings prompted Spanish voters to "throw out the old government
and replace it with one whose policies are more to al-Qaida's liking. What is the Spanish word
for appeasement?" Rightwing blog artist Andrew Sullivan also raided the 1930s lexicon for the
same, exhausted word: "It seems clear to me that the trend in Europe is now either
appeasement of terror or active alliance with it. It is hard to view the results in Spain as
anything but a choice between Bush and al-Qaida. Al-Qaida won." Not to be outdone, former
Bush speechwriter David Frum, the man who coined "axis of evil", sighed at the weakness of
the Spanish: "People are not always strong. Sometimes they indulge false hopes that by lying
low, truckling, appeasing, they can avoid danger and strife ... And this is what seems to have
happened in Spain."
Perhaps this is how the Bushites hope to avenge what they saw
as European insensitivity two and half years ago, by defaming the Spanish even as Madrid still
weeps. But this assault should not go unanswered if only because, if allowed to settle in the
public mind, it will widen yet further the already yawning transatlantic gulf of misunderstanding.
Put aside the imprecision (and worse) that comes with the abuse of the word
"appeasement": the menace of al-Qaida is real and serious enough without making hyperbolic
comparisons to the Third Reich. Focus instead on the two grave errors that underlie this latest
argument from the right. One is a misunderstanding of democracy, the other is a failure to make
crucial distinctions.
The first mistake is the more surprising, for no word is invoked more
often in support of the "war on terror" than democracy. Yet these insults hurled at the Spanish
show a sneaking contempt for the idea. For surely the Spanish did nothing more on Sunday
than exercise their democratic right to change governments. They elected the Socialist party;
to suggest they voted for al-Qaida is a slur not only on the Spanish nation but on the
democratic process itself, implying that when terrorists strike political choice must end.
It comes from the same mentality that prompted Republicans in 2002 to run TV ads
against the Democratic senator Max Cleland, who lost three limbs in the Vietnam war, placing
his face alongside those of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. It is the same thinking that
led one Republican congressman to quip recently that a vote in November for John Kerry will
be a vote for Osama. It is a bid to reshape the political landscape, so that parties of the right
stand on one side and all the rest are lumped in with al-Qaida. The tactic is McCarthyite, the
natural extension of the bullying insistence that, in President Bush's own words, "You are
either with us or you're with the terrorists". If that is the choice, then there is no choice: it is a
mandate for a collection of one-party states.
But this is not the heart of the matter. The
right's greater error is its failure to distinguish between the war against al-Qaida and the war on
Iraq. About 90% of the Spanish electorate were against the latter; there is no evidence that
they were, or are, soft on the former. On the contrary, there have been two mass
demonstrations of Spanish opinion in the past few days: let no one forget that 36 hours before
the election, about 11 million Spaniards took to the streets to swear their revulsion at terrorism.
It takes some cheek to accuse a nation like that of weakness and appeasement.
The
Spaniards showed they knew the difference between the struggle against al-Qaida and the
conflict in Iraq. It is hardly a shock that this distinction is lost on the likes of Frum and company:
the Bush administration worked tirelessly to conflate the two, constantly eliding Saddam and
9/11 even though the president himself has had to admit no evidence links the two.
The Spanish electorate were not voting for a cave-in to al-Qaida. On the contrary,
many of those who opposed the war in Iraq did so precisely because they feared it would
distract from the more urgent war against Islamist fanaticism. (Witness the US military resources
pulled off the hunt for Bin Laden in Afghanistan and diverted to Baghdad.) Nor was it
appeasement to suggest that the US-led invasion of an oil-rich, Muslim country would make
al-Qaida's recruitment mission that much easier.
Of course, this is not to argue that if
only the war had not happened then Bin Laden and his henchmen would have laid down their
arms. Al-Qaida's leaders are murderous, guilty of the most wicked acts; nothing we can do will
reach them. But that is not true of the many thousands, perhaps millions, drawn to the message
of extreme Islamism; the people who would never plant bombs, but might cheer when they go
off. These are the hearts and minds that have to be won over if the war on terror is ever to be
won. To assert that the conflict over Iraq made that task harder is not a surrender; it is a
statement of the obvious.
It may be comforting, but this struggle cannot be won by
painting the world in black and white, with America as the good guy and everyone else cast as
terrorists or their allies. It will require nimble, subtle thinking - constantly making awkward but
essential distinctions.
So, yes, it is quite true that al-Qaida will be chillingly gratified by
the Spanish result but, no, that does not mean that Spaniards voted for al-Qaida. Similarly, it is
quite possible to be strongly opposed to the Iraq adventure and militantly in favour of the war
against Bin Laden - indeed the two sentiments can be strongly linked. There is a difference,
too, between appeasing men of violence and seeking to limit their appeal, just as the leaders
of global terror must be separated from those who could become their followers. Islam is no
monolith, nor is the west, and all the fine gradations within these categories matter enormously.
The world has never looked more like a complex knot, and it will take precision and
patience to untangle it. Wrenching away at it in fury will only make the problem harder - and
our lives more dangerous.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1170857,00.html