Saturday, April 03, 2004
The Wages of Appeasement
Headline: Fear of New Bomb Attacks Grows in Spain
MADRID (Reuters) - High-speed trains to southern Spain began running again on Saturday after a bomb found on the line was defused but fears grew that Islamic extremists could strike again after the Madrid rail bombings...
El Pais newspaper reported that Spain is the main al Qaeda base in Europe and said police believed al Qaeda could strike again here.
Spain was once used as a rear base by Islamic militants, but having failed with attempted attacks in other European countries, "sleeper cells" were now carrying out operations in Spain, El Pais said. Police suspected 200 people in Spain of cooperating with radical Islamic groups, it said.
Several newspapers reported that the Spanish embassy in Egypt had recently received a letter signed by the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades and al Qaeda threatening to attack embassies, consulates and other Spanish interests in north Africa and the southern and eastern Mediterranean region.
The letter said the attacks could be avoided if Spain withdrew its soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan [emphasis mine] in the next four weeks, El Mundo newspaper reported.
Link.
Do not be fooled by the small size of the explosive charge on the rail line. This was a serious attempt at a mass casualty-producing attack, on a par with last month's attack in Madrid. It only takes a small charge--easily concealable in a backpack--to snap a rail. And that's all they needed to do. The high speed of the train--well in excess of 100 mph--would do the real killing.
Call it "leverage." Because that's what it is.
And so Spain has replaced its government, and pledged to pull out of operations in Iraq. And yet attacks continue, and its people still live in fear.
And they will continue to live in fear as long as Al Qaeda and its ilk percieves Spain as the political weak link in the coalition it has demonstrated itself to be.
Now that Al Qaeda knows they can be bullied out of Iraq, they have already raised the stakes to bully them out of Afghanistan. And when they get their way in Afghanistan, they will use either terrorism or assassination attempts to intimidate them into releasing terrorists from Spanish prisons.
And whether the Spanish continue to succumb to that or not, Al Qaeda will continue to kill Spaniards for no other reason than they are free people--just as they targeted westerners in a Bali nightclub two years ago.
Insurgents targeted Italian troops in Nasiriyah, detonating a bomb that killed 26 people.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi stood firm.
It's not Italian rail lines that are still being attacked.
There is no appeasing Al Qaeda. There are no deals. There can be no separate peace. Unilateral pacificism yields no dividends for the weak.
The war against Al Qaeda is a war of annihilation.
There are no reliable defensive measures against Al Qaeda. Terrorists are intelligent beasts who go to school on their enemy. Any defensive countermeasure will quickly be identified and worked around.
Spain cannot guard its entire rail network simultaneously. If it does, it will be forced to leave other critical infrastructures unguarded. Sun Tzu wrote 2,000 years ago that a general cannot defend everywhere at once. If he is strong on his left, his right is weak. If he is strong on his right, his left is weak. If he tries to be strong everywhere, he will everywhere be weak.
If defense is futile, and neutrality is a non-option, then it follows that the only course left to Spain--and to free nations everywhere--is to attack Al Qaeda in its nests. To go abroad and rob them of their bases of support. To make their logistics and financing impossible. Deny them safe havens to do their recruiting and training. Deny them and their state sponsors the media domination it takes to recruit and retain operatives. To fight and win the war of ideas forward.
And ultimately, to practice some leverage of our own. As we make headway in the war of ideas forward, to use our new human intelligence sources to find Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Iraq and whereever else they are, smoke them out of their caves and cut them down as they flee. To hunt them down in their tenements and turn them into corpses rotting in the backs of coalition trucks.
Spain is already at war with Al Qaeda. It has been for years. It has no choice.
It never did.
Splash, out
Jason
MADRID (Reuters) - High-speed trains to southern Spain began running again on Saturday after a bomb found on the line was defused but fears grew that Islamic extremists could strike again after the Madrid rail bombings...
El Pais newspaper reported that Spain is the main al Qaeda base in Europe and said police believed al Qaeda could strike again here.
Spain was once used as a rear base by Islamic militants, but having failed with attempted attacks in other European countries, "sleeper cells" were now carrying out operations in Spain, El Pais said. Police suspected 200 people in Spain of cooperating with radical Islamic groups, it said.
Several newspapers reported that the Spanish embassy in Egypt had recently received a letter signed by the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades and al Qaeda threatening to attack embassies, consulates and other Spanish interests in north Africa and the southern and eastern Mediterranean region.
The letter said the attacks could be avoided if Spain withdrew its soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan [emphasis mine] in the next four weeks, El Mundo newspaper reported.
Link.
Do not be fooled by the small size of the explosive charge on the rail line. This was a serious attempt at a mass casualty-producing attack, on a par with last month's attack in Madrid. It only takes a small charge--easily concealable in a backpack--to snap a rail. And that's all they needed to do. The high speed of the train--well in excess of 100 mph--would do the real killing.
Call it "leverage." Because that's what it is.
And so Spain has replaced its government, and pledged to pull out of operations in Iraq. And yet attacks continue, and its people still live in fear.
And they will continue to live in fear as long as Al Qaeda and its ilk percieves Spain as the political weak link in the coalition it has demonstrated itself to be.
Now that Al Qaeda knows they can be bullied out of Iraq, they have already raised the stakes to bully them out of Afghanistan. And when they get their way in Afghanistan, they will use either terrorism or assassination attempts to intimidate them into releasing terrorists from Spanish prisons.
And whether the Spanish continue to succumb to that or not, Al Qaeda will continue to kill Spaniards for no other reason than they are free people--just as they targeted westerners in a Bali nightclub two years ago.
Insurgents targeted Italian troops in Nasiriyah, detonating a bomb that killed 26 people.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi stood firm.
It's not Italian rail lines that are still being attacked.
There is no appeasing Al Qaeda. There are no deals. There can be no separate peace. Unilateral pacificism yields no dividends for the weak.
The war against Al Qaeda is a war of annihilation.
There are no reliable defensive measures against Al Qaeda. Terrorists are intelligent beasts who go to school on their enemy. Any defensive countermeasure will quickly be identified and worked around.
Spain cannot guard its entire rail network simultaneously. If it does, it will be forced to leave other critical infrastructures unguarded. Sun Tzu wrote 2,000 years ago that a general cannot defend everywhere at once. If he is strong on his left, his right is weak. If he is strong on his right, his left is weak. If he tries to be strong everywhere, he will everywhere be weak.
If defense is futile, and neutrality is a non-option, then it follows that the only course left to Spain--and to free nations everywhere--is to attack Al Qaeda in its nests. To go abroad and rob them of their bases of support. To make their logistics and financing impossible. Deny them safe havens to do their recruiting and training. Deny them and their state sponsors the media domination it takes to recruit and retain operatives. To fight and win the war of ideas forward.
And ultimately, to practice some leverage of our own. As we make headway in the war of ideas forward, to use our new human intelligence sources to find Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Iraq and whereever else they are, smoke them out of their caves and cut them down as they flee. To hunt them down in their tenements and turn them into corpses rotting in the backs of coalition trucks.
Spain is already at war with Al Qaeda. It has been for years. It has no choice.
It never did.
Splash, out
Jason
Comments:
Post a Comment
