Spaniards send US a message by voting out Aznar's party
gulfnews.com
By Youssef M. Ibrahim
Columnist
Gulf News
16-03-2004
The stunning defeat of conservative Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's party on Sunday, despite the fact that they were leading in the polls only days before the terrorist attack on a Spanish train that killed 200 innocent people and injured nearly 1500 others, has made it plain to what degree Spaniards, like much of the rest of the world, flatly renounce American foreign policy doctrines of pre-emptive attacks, occupation and regime changes.
The Bush administration would be blind, not to mention suicidal, to ignore the message. The United States presidential elections are only months away. Indications are that the American public feels Bush's policies are not making the world, or America, any safer.
What Spanish voters were saying is that far from fighting terror, the US policies of going it alone, ignoring the United Nations, disregarding much of the world's opposition - 90 per cent of Spanish citizens opposed Spain's participation in the occupation of Iraq - have a political price tag attached.
These policies, if anything, have promoted more terror. The evidence was plain in Spain. In fact, looking around the world, the policies of the Bush administration have increased the threat of terror and encouraged more terrorist organisations to come together to fight the US.
Osama bin Laden's Al Qaida, most experts agree, has now morphed from a Muslim extremist organisation to a sort of a club for anyone who hates America. Terrorists who are not necessarily Muslim extremists are joining the fight against the Americans in Iraq, and now in Europe against governments that supported the US.
It is entirely possible, as Spanish investigators are suggesting, that the Basque terrorists of ETA joined hands with Al Qaida to mount the bloody attack on innocent civilians in Madrid. If not so, this is probably the work of Al Qaida, as ETA has no record of such horrific terror. Either ways, it is a criminal act clearly motivated by a desire to attack America and its friends.
It has been a year since the Bush administration launched its war against Iraq and occupied that country. The official pretext was to dampen terrorism, look for weapons of mass destruction and, of course, establish democracy. These pretexts have now widely and definitively been discredited around the world.
Only a few fanatics among the neo-conservatives in Washington D.C, such as Richard Perle and his ilk, still repeat such nonsense. The fact remains that most countries, especially in the European Union and Arab and Muslim world, opposed the war.
What is more distressing is that the Bush administration has provoked more terrorism around the world today than ever in the past two decades.
In Israel, ever since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon equated his policies of repressing the Palestinians with Bush's phony "fighting terror" tactics, more Israeli civilians have died than in the past 20 years. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are homeless as their dwellings are bulldozed or bombed, creating fertile ground for the recruitment of more militants.
In America, every other week brings a warning of a possible attack and more security measures that have made life pure hell for travellers at airports, train stations and on highways. In Europe and Asia, terror attacks have not stopped and are on the rise.
More important, in Iraq itself, acts of terror have become a daily routine. Over 550 American soldiers have died since the March invasion and more than 1400 have been maimed for life; allegedly at least 50,000 Iraqi innocent civilians have been killed. And there is no end in sight.
To be sure, no sane person can oppose the removal from power of Saddam Hussain and his criminal sons and gangs of thugs. That was a very good thing. But it is a fact that before the invasion, the Iraqi tyrant was boxed and so were his thugs.
Now, daily life for Iraqis carries the threat of death, theft, rape and abduction. America has not delivered on its promise of prosperity, liberty and happiness for Iraqis. If anything, the Bush crowd is looking for a quick exit before the presidential election season begins in the next month - Iraqis be damned.
Above all, the vote on Sunday in Spain was a signal for the way things are going to go for British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the other loyal ally of Bush, the Italian premier Silvio Berlussconi.
The only two remaining European leaders who claim to support Bush's Iraq policies. But even they can no longer ignore the fact that poll after poll shows the US and its policies being rejected around the world, from Europe, to Asia to the Gulf region.
For a president who pretends to be a fervent advocate of democracy, to a point of wanting to impose it on the Arab and Muslim world, how, one must ask a year later, did Bush miss out so badly in Iraq?
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Youssef M. Ibrahim , a former Middle East correspondent for the New York Times and Energy Editor of the Wall Street Journal, is Managing Director of the Dubai-based Strategic Energy Investment Group, a consulting firm specialising in assessing political risk in the Gulf, Middle and Near East region. He can be contacted at ymibrahim@gulfnews.com |
