The recent bombs in Madrid have concentrated Collective Anger, once more, against Terrorism. People who claim not to care whether it was ETA or Al Qaeda ('it is all terrorism") are refusing to accept the fact that the actions of their governmets are also, from a global *human* perspective, terrorism, i.e. murdering innocents in the pursuit of *Freedom* and camouflaged in the idea of *Good vs Evil*.
The train bombs were nasty brutal acts, involving working class and immigrant population and even several pregnant women. But are 200 innocent women and children killed by bombs dropped by airplanes in Afghanistan less worthy of mourning? Terrorism is clear. But in the case of war, one can never know/prove whether the innocents killed were due to error, plain inefficiency, stupidity or just deliberate ("woops, sorry, wrong target!") - war always escapes the rules of law.
I have brought war into this because the actions of govt's such as Bush and his warmongering squad will be condoned by another frustrated chunk of the human population, as they rally behind the abstract concept of War Against Terror. It is no mystery that terrorism will never be beaten with weapons, on the contrary, it is being created by it. The moment that 200 people in Irak killed by American cluster bombs receive the same honest treatment, respect and mourning in the west as 200 westerners killed by terrorists, that day only terrorism may finish.
Nationalism in the Basque country, a country that has been ruled by Spain for only a few centuries, is strong, although support for ETA has plummeted in recent decades. There are large numbers rejecting independence depending on the area especially in some big cities, where half the population (or more) is Spanish-descendant.
The Spanish govt were keen, from the very first moment after the bombs, to point the finger at ETA. So far, they have still shown no proof it was Basque terrorists, just constant vocal accusations. But ETA have denied responsability. They have always warned before their attacks and, although innocents have been killed in the process, they have always targeted individuals (usually politicians and businessmen), never huge numbers of people indiscriminately. These would surely be the actions of a new suicidal ETA. In fact, these actions would completely make them lose the only supporters they still hold, and alienate them in the world.
On the other hand, the famous van with the Arabic tape found in the station of origin had the same bombing equipment used for the explosives found in the trains. Two different messages from Al Qaeda in London and Italy have also accepted responsability for the attacks. And still the Spanish govt pretends that ETA is responsible. Why?
This is the same govt that have hidden environmental catastrophes several times. One of the biggest national parks in Europe was contaminated by heavy metals when they failed to act and later hushed things. The recent oil spill (not the first one) was caused by their refusal to take it to safety, only due to the ship's flag, and they even tried to push the oil tanker towards Portuguese waters, as someone who tries to throw an empty can of toxic chemicals into someone else's patio. Later on, they even denied it was leaking oil. When a day later 75,000 tons of crude oil covered vast areas of beaches, it was already too late. This is the same govt that supported Bush and Blair in their "War On Terror", the same govt that took a reluctant country into war (90% against war in Irak) and then walked away moustachio-unscathed.
Tomorrow there will be elections in Spain. It is a comfortable thought for those supporting Aznar and his inept liars to believe that their most hated Basque-separatists ETA did it. But it is a chilling spectacle to find that the government they are voting for has helped push their country in the main target of Islamic fundamentalism and drag them hand-in-hand into Bush's idea of War On Terror.
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