It Only Took One

In the news: CNN is reporting that a December document from al-Qaeda's message boards claims that "the Spanish government will not stand more than two blows, or three at the most, before it will be forced to withdraw" from Iraq.

I think al-Qaeda overestimated the Spanish. It only took one.

Just having one of those days when I'm glad I'm Portuguese. (walks away whistling innocently)

More on the Spanish appeasement: "The liberal Los Angeles Times refused to condemn Spain, instead urging the Bush administration to 'read the results as demonstrating anew that most of the world does not see the Iraq campaign as part of the global war on terror'". Somebody else yesterday said it better than I can (unfortunately I forgot where I read it!) but the point was that if Iraq is not part of the war on terror, then why would al-Qaeda be interested in punishing Spain for participating? You could make the argument that it is simply because Iraq is a Muslim land that has been "unfairly" invaded, and al-Qaeda has taken it upon itself to defend it. By that logic then, al-Qaeda should be interested in attacking Spain because it has invaded Spain (Andalusia). Which in fact it is, in light of some documents (again I can't remember where I came across them yesterday) that have recently come to light. And if al-Qaeda is interested in driving the "crusaders" out of Spain, then Spain has an interest in fighting al-Qaeda.

Since we're now reasoning under the hypothesis that the Iraq invasion is not part of the war on terror, we have to assume that Spain had a different reason (other than the war on terror) to go into Iraq in the first place. That reason wasn't al-Qaeda. It can't have been international mandates or pressure, since France and Germany would also have been subject to them and got a free pass (except for all the nasty jokes that got told about them in America). I'm at a loss to explain why Spain would have gone into Iraq in the first place then, if the Los Angeles Times is right. If anybody knows why it was, if it wasn't the Iraq/al-Qaeda connection, I'd sure like to hear it. Maybe WMD's?

But at any rate, they did go in. Aznar evidently saw something in Iraq that made him want to go in over the objections of what's currently being estimated as 90% of his countrymen. Even after the WMD news (or lack thereof) broke, he stayed there. Something is there that he knew that the Spanish people evidently didn't. I just hope he passes it on to Zapatero.