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SUNDAY SPECTATOR
March 28, 2004
Mourning for Spain
Unlike Spain's other supposed lovers I haven't already forgotten about the terrorist attack on Madrid barely a fortnight ago. The issue is already out of the news except as a distant reference; the Spanish election provided our gliberal media with a kind of instant closure. Coverage of the state memorial for the numerous victims -- culminating in a requiem mass in the Almudena Cathedral on Wednesday -- had nothing on the send-off we gave to Princess Di. I searched for it through the inside pages. And yet the significance of this massacre -- fewer than 200 dead and fewer than 2 000 maimed -- is out of all proportion to the number of victims. For there will be many many more victims of terrorism as the result of the success of this Madrid "operation". The election of Jos? Luis Rodr?guez Zapatero in the wake of the blasts itself guaranteed more such attacks throughout Europe and elsewhere. This is because the terrorists proved two things: that an open society is defenceless against bombs in rucksacks; and that bombs in rucksacks can change the result of an election. By repeating his ignominious pledge to pull Spanish troops out of Iraq betraying Spain's allies; by repeating as prime minister elect vicious lies about the motives of the Bush and Blair governments; by condoning in silence the wildfire of innuendo which his supporters ignited to win the Spanish election -- Mr. Zapatero has crowned the terrorist hits with false glory. He does one thing after another to advance the interests of the international Jihad. In a public statement this last week the outgoing prime minister Jos? Maria Aznar vindicated his government's behaviour after the attacks. They attributed the attacks to the Basque ETA on evidence immediately before them; as new evidence was found suggesting the perpetrators were Muslims not Basques they made it available as quickly as was physically possible. And they honoured the all-party agreement to desist from public political demonstrations in the time of mourning which the Socialists dishonoured. One cannot be so furious with a country without deeply loving it. The Spanish people are not one person and it must be remembered that millions of them kept faith and showed solidarity in the face of hideous evil. It should moreover be appreciated that the Spaniards are not alone either in sorrow over their terrible losses or in the propensity of their society to moral failure under acute stress. The government of my own country Canada has been for more than a decade governed by a corrupt and faithless clique every bit as contemptible as the Spanish Socialists; and in national elections the Canadian people have proved as gullible and as willing to be degraded. Here as there a substantial minority has had to watch a cynical party backed by cynical media exploit a deep vein of narcissism in the general population. For the moral collapse in Western society is hardly restricted to Spain or Canada. With the loss of faith in God comes in due course a general faithlessness as men come to believe that they not God are the source of all virtue. This is the essence of our post-modern narcissism -- a self-admiration that has come to trump even self-interest; a cynicism peculiarly easy to dupe. We must distinguish the sinner from the sin. It is not Spain nor Canada I hate but betrayal of everything that was good in Spain and Canada. I am full of admiration for Spain's achievements and full of pride for Canada's. In fact until two weeks ago I had held up the Aznar government as an example to my people of what we ought to have done; had praised the alacrity and gallantry with which the Spanish took the field in Iraq against a murderous tyrant and in support of beleaguered allies. Mr. Aznar had shown real political courage on the very issue which our prime minister had funked. My present disgust with Spain is thus different in kind from for instance the reflexive anti-Americanism I read from so many European and even American sources. In this I detect no lost love but only the bitterness of a narcissism that rejects America as "not me" and hates President Bush with a special intensity because he is an embodiment of everything opposite to the Left's moral preening. I didn't want Spain to behave ignominiously and do not revel in Spain's failure. They long for America to behave ignominiously and revel in every setback. David Warren
© Ottawa Citizen
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