This past weekend, the terrorists “won.” They didn’t win the war, but they won the battle. And at the very least, they gained a very powerful weapon in the war on terror. This weekend, Spanish voters allowed terrorism to “work.”
Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who lost his reelection bid over the weekend, was a man terrorists did not want in power. He was like President Bush in that his firm and unyielding stance against terror threatened terrorists. Prior to the horrific terrorist attacks last week in Spain, Aznar had a slight, but somewhat meaningful lead in the polls.
Then terrorists decided to try out their new “weapon.” Knowing full well that Spanish voters would foolishly blame the attack on Aznar’s cooperation in the Battle of Iraq, they attacked Spain to scare voters into voting against him. Unfortunately, it worked like a charm for the terrorists. A few days later, the man they wanted gone is now defeated.
The precedent this sets is incredibly dangerous. Spanish voters have let terrorists dictate who wins elections. This November’s elections just took on a whole new twist. In President Bush, we have a man who terrorists do not want to see in office because of his firm and unyielding stance against terrorism. The probability that terrorists would try to attack hoping it would result in the president’s electoral defeat just went through the roof.
Who knows if there will be a terrorist attack this year in the US, but the Spanish just gave the terrorists a perfectly good reason to try one. The precedent created this weekend is truly scary. It’s the “Mogadishu effect” all over again. If God forbid there is a terrorist attack before our presidential election, then Americans need to send a strong message. Americans need to stand in unity to tell the terrorists that we decide who our leaders are, not them.
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