Terrorism: 1 The Spanish People: 0

It is unpleasant to criticize the Spanish people today. But theirs was a historic moment to tell a-Qaeda that terrorism doesn’t work. They did the opposite, and by acquiescing to al-Qaeda’s demand that they elect a government that would, as a first step, withdraw from Iraq, Spanish voters have set the stage for attacks against other coalition allies. American, British, Bulgarian, Danish, Estonian, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Thai and Ukrainian soldiers have all died in Iraq. The Spanish blame America – but we will blame Spain for the next one.

It is unpleasant to criticize the Spanish people today. But theirs was a historic moment to tell a-Qaeda that terrorism doesn’t work. They did the opposite, and by acquiescing to al-Qaeda’s demand that they elect a government that would, as a first step, withdraw from Iraq, Spanish voters have set the stage for attacks against other coalition allies. American, British, Bulgarian, Danish, Estonian, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Thai and Ukrainian soldiers have all died in Iraq. The Spanish blame America – but we will blame Spain for the next one. And since Spain has given al-Qaeda a huge victory, it will find that not only has it not solved its domestic terror problem, it doesn’t even understand it.

Al-Qaeda has been called a “portmanteau,” a closet holding disparate elements out of sight in various countries in loose association with itself and with each other. Its goal is to remove Western influence from what it considers Muslim lands and, as far as possible, to extend Islamic law in the violent, fundamentalist form it preaches. Removal of coalition forces from Iraq is necessary, but not sufficient. Iraq must be remade as a fundamentalist theocracy, as must Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Indonesia – and Spain.

It is little remarked upon that many Muslims consider modern, secular, democratic Spain (the successor to Catholic and then fascist Spain) a putative Islamic country. The south is filled with the remains of the high point of Islamic history as well as the Golden Age of Judaism. Only 10 miles across the straits from Morocco, modern Spain has had years of infiltration by radical Muslims – some linked to al-Qaeda, others not necessarily so – trying to restore Spain to its Muslim past. The government has arrested hundreds in the past few years even as it has waged its war against the Basque terrorist group ETA. Spanish authorities have found strong evidence of al-Qaeda assistance to groups in Chechnya, Bosnia, the Middle East and to ETA.

But incoming PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero focused on America’s role in Iraq, calling the overthrow of Saddam, “a political error for the international order, for the search for cooperation, for the defense of the United States. It divided more than it united, there were no reasons for it, time has shown that the arguments for it lacked credibility and the occupation has been managed badly.” He added, “There must be consequences. There has been one already – the election result. The second will be that the Spanish troops will come back (to Spain),” he added. “Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush must do some reflection and self-criticism.”

The third result will be the emboldening of al-Qaeda in Spain and elsewhere.

Appeasing terrorists never works – Hitler didn’t want the Sudetenland. Al-Qaeda lives in its myriad forms to kill Westerners. If PM Zapatero really believes al-Qaeda will now say to the Spanish people, “Oh, thank you. All we really wanted was 1,200 Spanish soldiers out of Iraq. You can go back to whatever you were doing now,” he is a fool and the Spanish voters who put him there are as well.