If the Spanish voters thought they were protecting themselves on March 14 by voting out Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's conservative government that supported the war on terrorism in favor of the Socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero they were sorely mistaken. Zapatero promised to remove Spanish troops from Iraq and thus, supposedly, take Spaniards out of harms way as it concerns terrorism.
This past week the Zapatero government announced that while they would pull troops from Iraq, they would increase the Spanish contingent in Afghanistan as a show of support for the war against terrorism.
The socialist government, and the Spanish people have just discovered the reward of their capitulation to terrorism. In an Al Qaeda communiqué, the terrorist organization has demanded Spanish troops be withdrawn from both Iraq and Afghanistan or, in their words, “we will declare war on you and ... convert your country into an inferno and your blood will flow like rivers." And Spanish voters thought they could avoid this by getting rid of those “bad conservatives” who got them in this terrorist mess. Cal Thomas predicted this scenario in his March 16 column.
Now the Zapatero government has a decision to make. Will they bend their knee to the terrorist party and allow them to effective run the country through threat and intimidation? Or will they draw the proverbial line in the sand and say, “no more!” If they choose the former, the threats and intimidation will continue ad infinitum, demanding increasing capitulation until the democratic government of Spain will cease to exist.
Or they can choose to say, “we calculated wrong, we will not bend our knee to terrorism, we will fight you where ever we find you.”
A decision either way will bring troubles on the country. The difference being that to capitulate will bring a never ending downward spiral that will result in subjugation, loss of freedom and national pride. The alternative, to stand up to the terrorists, will surely bring more violence. But as the people stand strong and tall, as they fight this threat that would take away their way of life, they will find their strength and pride, their freedom and dignity.
It will be a long hard road; it may well take many years. But that is the price Spanish voters paid on March 14 when, thinking they could take the easy way out and appease the terrorists, found there is no appeasement. Terrorism, by its very nature is never satisfied. It wants more and more control over the lives, freedoms and fortunes of those whom it sets its sights on.
America, take note today. Should we repeat the mistake of the Spaniards and vote into office one who will succumb to terrorisms threat, we too will find ourselves on that same path, faced with that same choice.
A right decision on November 2 will tell terrorists they cannot bully us. That America’s people are "strong and unwilling to bend to the sword of fear and violence. Terrorists are not safe from the strength and dignity of Americans. That they cannot find safe haven from this fight we are bringing to their hiding places and refuges."
Should we fail in that test on that fateful Tuesday, the fear, the violence will be unrelenting.