Starship Irony decloaking off the starboard bow, Captain. :rolleyes:
Mehitabel, it doesn’t help your case when you’re trying to point out someone’s ignorance by responding with pure fucking ignorance yourself.
A couple of helpful tips, before you try again:[ul][li]“Europe” is not one country. Policy decisions may therefore differ between the various states on this continent.[]We don’t have “Arab-Americans” in Europe. We do have people of Arab descent, though.[]I know of no European country that currently “forces Arabs into ghettos”. But I’m willing to learn, since you’re obviously so well-versed in European domestic politics. :rolleyes:[/ul][/li] Sailor, thanks for that fantastic post. And I’m glad you’re all right.
Starving Artist: the phrase you’re looking for is “au contraire”, not “oh, contraire”. I don’t mind snobs per se, but I hate uninformed ones.
Furthermore, a lot of you guys just need to learn how to fucking read. The logic behind the events in Madrid (and their impact on the following elections) really isn’t all that hard. Read this damn thread again, if you must. Yeesh.
They swayed fuck-all. Aznar was punished for being a Bush lapdog, and for attempting to deceive the Spanish people about who was behind last week’s bombings.
And for the last fucking time: AL QUEDA WAS ALREADY CONVINCED THAT TERRORISM IS A VIABLE (POLITICAL) TOOL. THAT’S WHY THEY’RE IN THE BUSINESS OF BLOWING SHIT UP.
Dammit, how do you fucking idiots tie your shoes in the morning if you can’t follow THAT simple a train of thought?
Then why do all the polls (I’ve heard about third hand and am too lazy to look up) say that the election was clinched in the conservative party’s hands?
As I’ve asked before (and never gotten a response), what about the voters who sincerely believed that the Socialists were the right people to get Spain on the right track? Are you telling them that it was the wrong thing to do to vote for their beliefs, because it might piss off terrorists? Isn’t that as much swaying the election as what some people claim happened?
I have to question such logic, and here’s why… since March of 2003, the al-qaida terrorist bombings have taken place in Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, and Morocco, and Yemen - and probably a fair few others which escape me. My point? Al-Qaida has been busy, busy, busy - picking soft targets here there and everywhere just doing their damndest to let us all know that they haven’t gone away. In short, their modus operandi, and their fucked-up worshipers have taken to looking upon terrorist bombings as a fashionable thing to do - regardless of the country - regardless of the target.
Spain is merely another in the opportunity roster. It’s no more, nor less special than all of the other atrocities. To assert that an election result in Spain is somehow going to embolden al-qaida when all of the evidence indicates that they’ve been entirely bold motherfuckers FOR THE LAST FUCKING YEAR is a patently insular viewpoint it seems to me.
Point being, if we’re worried about giving them material for recruiting videos, the little desert safari that Bush has embarked on goes right up there. You know, we can’t start tiptoeing around and wondering what exactly we should do based on what we think terrorists may or may not want us to do, or worry about what message we may or may not be sending them. They’re freaking madmen after all, and they’ll find a way to justify whatever bullshit cause they pursuing no matter what we do (which is not to say it’s hopeless or anything – you just can’t rationalize with madmen).
I’m talking about the undecideds and people who outright flipped, based on fear of terrorism. This is a terrible lesson to the terrorists that we WILL concede to indiscriminate murderers.
I’m new to this site and I’m not sure of the protocol for engaging with a mod. I’ve never before seen one interact with other thread posters in this way.
But in my own defense, I must say that I think there’s a difference between terrorists blowing things up occasionally (and usually in vain) in order to make themselves feel more like men, and actually accomplishing something by it. You all act like there is just a certain level of terrorism that is going to go on no matter what. I, and the others who feel like I do, think that the terrorists now have something to hang their hats on, they’ve accomplished a goal, and an important one at that, and now they are going to be gung-ho to use it much more. I don’t understand why people don’t see this.
No, I think that terrorism can be stopped, both by rounding up terrorists and eliminating the root cause of their beef, whatever that may be. However, once someone’s chosen that path and, as we’ve seen, is quite willing to die in the execution of that path, it would seem to me there is scant little we can do to disencourage them to do so.
The only heartening thing about this thread so far is that for every one heartless antidemocratic spunk-on-a-shitbiscuit wankstain that’s reared its ugly head from its mother’s fetid crotch, there are about 10 people with at least half a fucking brain in their heads and more than a gram of compassion.
No, I wouldn’t say so, unless I’m misunderstanding your opinion. I don’t care if terrorists get the illusion of anything one way or the other if I feel that progress will be made as a result.
I suspect the issue here is your tact, or lack therein. Try and remember something, OK? Spain went through hell in the 1930’s. It went to hell and back. Just read “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Hemingway and get an idea of how bitterly and inexorably Spaniards were divided by that Civil War. They were practice targets for the German Stuka pilots. They lived in isolation under Franco for decades. And then ETA came along and started letting off IRA-esque bombings for years too.
Spain is a country which knows all about pain. And lots of it too - far more than 99.9% of Americans can ever dream of. They know in their heart of hearts that appeasement achieves nothing. Accordingly, for a Spaniard to hear an outsider accusing them of being cowardly pacifists who would sign a deal with the devil just plain out and out lacks tact.
