Bill Sykes' Newsletter
from America.
(April 2004)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
Another terrible terrorist incident:
Dateline: Thursday the eleventh of March.
Location Madrid, Spain.
What happened:
Ten bombs were placed by terrorist factions in strategic
locations, onboard several commuter trains at three mainline
railway stations in the city of Madrid, Spain.
During the morning rush hour the bombs were detonated
simultaneously by cell phone triggering devices, causing
terrific explosions which destroyed many of the compartments
of the train throwing them many feet in the air killing
200 people and maiming over fifteen hundred additional
civilians.
Who was responsible:
Initially the Spanish Government placed the blame for
the terrorist acts upon the Basque Separatist Party, (ETA),
who have sought autonomy and have been involved over the
years in killing as many as 800 Spanish people but never
on such a huge scale as this.
ETA immediately denied that they were involved in this
cowardly and deadly act of terrorism and asked the Spanish
Government to absolve them of the crime. In the next couple
of days the Spanish Government stated that evidence had
surfaced indicating the possibility that members of Al-Qaeda
were the perpetrators of this heinous crime. Five suspects,
three Moroccans and two with Indian backgrounds were arrested
and take into custody.
United States authorities said on Monday that they believed
that Al-Qaeda had a role in the bombing attacks and that
there was a possible link with the attacks that occurred
in Casablanca last year,
The evidence:
Two of the bombs did not explode and were retrieved from
the wreckage. The unexploded bombs were located intact
in backpacks, and had cell phone triggering devices attached.
The political result:
 The
train bombings were followed by nationwide street rallies
and political unrest amongst the Spanish people, and in
the Government election that followed, Prime Minister
Jose Maria Aznar’s Conservative party, (one of the
first governments to back the United States decision to
go to war with Iraq), were soundly defeated by Spain’s
Socialist party.
Jose Rodriguez Zapatero, the Prime Minister of the newly
elected Socialist Party, immediately stated that Spain’s
cooperation with the United States, (by supplying Spanish
troops to support the US led occupation of Iraq), was
a gross political error and had alienated Spain from its
traditional ties with its European allies, resulting in
Spain becoming a target for political extremists.
I’m given to understand that there was a great deal
of opposition from the Spanish people against supporting
America’s war against Iraq in the first place but
the Spanish Conservative party went ahead with the provision
of troops anyway.
 After
what was called a surprise victory over the Conservatives,
the leader of the Socialist Party, Prime Minister Zapatero,
re-stated a campaign promise to withdraw his nation’s
support for the United States led occupation of Iraq,
and would set a date for the disengagement of the 1,300
Spanish troops now in Iraq.
In Sunday’s election the Socialist defeat of the
Popular Party increased their number of seats from 125
to 164, in a 350 member Congress, with the Conservative
dropping from 183 to 148.
Personal Comment:
Horror amongst the Spanish people at the devastating bomb
attacks in Madrid, coupled with their anger against their
Conservative government for aiding and abetting the United
States in its war against Iraq, and the belief that this
act brought about the Muslim extremist reprisals against
the Spanish people, the Spanish voters took their revenge
upon the Republican Party, (that had been in power for
the last eight years), and voted in a Socialist government.
Did this horrendous act of a crime against humanity have
any bearing upon the parliamentary upset? Surely it did.
If a similar act of mass destruction, with the loss of
many American lives, were to occur in the months prior
to the United States Presidential election in November
of 2004, would it have the same effect? Certainly.
It is amazing that ten bombs, (two of which failed to
explode), could cause the overthrow of a Government.
But there again it only took two bombs at Hiroshima and
Nagasaki to stop a very violent war. Yeah, yeah, I’m
fully aware that these were completely different circumstances.
I’m sure that Islamic extremists will be making
plans to disrupt and influence the American Presidential
election by employing similar, or far worse tactics. Perhaps
they have other ideas, but I would suggest that the answer
is not beyond the scope of these violent and somewhat
unpredictable people.
The Spanish political revolution, which placed the Socialists
in power, with the new Prime Minister vowing that one
of his Governments first acts will be to fulfil a campaign
pledge to bring the Spanish troops home from Iraq and
Afghanistan at the earliest opportunity, will certainly
complicate the Bush Administration international policies
and military agenda.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents of these
newsletters. Please send all correspondence to bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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