Yesterday, the terrorists won in Spain.
The Other Charlotte’s ‘Reconquista‘ post’which notes that Spain has thrown out a party under which the country enjoyed eight years of prosperity because of what appears to be an Al Qaeda bombing’is a must-read.
She quotes the inimitable James Lileks, who compares Spain’s current, post-election predicament to that of somebody ‘sitting on a cooler of raw meat with tigers prowling around, and deciding to put down your rifle so you can throw some steaks at the tigers. If you throw hard enough, they won’t come back.’
Islamic terrorists have a reason to rejoice beyond the obvious one of defeating the pro-U.S. party led by Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
Spain was the ideological battleground between Europe and Islam in the Middle Ages, which seem like yesterday to Osama bin Laden. Islam flourished in parts of Spain for eight centuries. Osama bin Laden wants it back.
It was touch and go, of course, but Old Europe finally won. The last Islamic caliphate in Spain was defeated in 1492, an all-round red letter date in Spanish history.
Europe won that round with Islam because Europe had the belief in’well’Europe to win.
The ‘Song of Roland”which has probably been removed from school curricula as not being multicultural enough’is one of the greatest of Western epics. It’s about an ill-fated incursion into Moorish Spain in which the heroic Roland is killed.
This brings us to the leadership of Europe today…
The Bush team is right to challenge Kerry to reveal the names of the foreign leaders who supposedly told him they are pulling for him to win. It’s fine to make Monsieur Kerry look like a liar, and he probably is.
But let’s face it: Whether they told Monsieur Kerry or not, most of the anemic leaders of Europe want him to win. Strong leadership for the United States is the last thing they want.