Tim Blair

"Why do the blowback believers keep ignoring East Timor? It's as though the liberation of that country never happened"

What about Afghanistan? We DIRECTLY attacked Al-Qaeda in their own stronghold! Surely that pissed them off just a little?

But I guess attacking a regime whom they apparently hated, and freeing 20 million or so of their fellow Muslims from said regime (which, by the way, had murdered up to a million of those citizens) is much, much worse and therefore much more likely to cause "blowback".

Either that or there is simply more political mileage in blaming it on Iraq (no matter how likely it is to encourage the animals to blow up more people)

ah, we cweated a new gwievance for da poor widdle terworwists?

Grievances, injustices, root causes etc. are all just academic bullshit. Nothing real or perceived provides any degree of justification for deliberately blowing up civilian men, women and children.

More to the point, once we are on this road it does not matter who started it, only who can finish it.

There are however root causes behind the terrorists ability to recruit, and a key one is the illusion of popular support created in the media.

Those like Fisk, Pilger, and Adams do not even have the excuse of desperation or delusion. They are simply parasites.

Kamal:

But any objective analysis concludes that if the Spanish punished the ruling Popular Party it was because of its dishonesty in trying hard to paint ETA as responsible.

Tim Blair:

Early anti-conservative spin suggested that the Spanish government was punished by voters not so much for the attacks but for trying to pin the blame on ETA. This is insane; the day before polling, the government released details of an al Qaeda video claiming credit for the blasts. Plainly, information was released as it became available. Moreover, the UN Security Council had voted on the very day of the attacks to blame the ETA's Basque militants [wasn't it initiated by Spain? - Andjam]; a drastically premature move, which the UN must have known would influence (one way or the other) the election.

You must understand that Arab vs. Kurd does not stir the emotions of Pilger and Fisk quite as much as Jew vs. Muslim and Jingoist vs. victim.

They must be slipping.

We do differ on that point, Andjam. It's still a good read, though.

To end terrorism we must address its root causes.
This will involve carpet bombing.

They don't like to talk about East Timor because they haven't worked out how to give it sufficient anti-Western spin yet.

Give them time.

"1. It was widely known that the Popular Party was expected to win before the massacre when the public already knew about Spain’s role in Iraq. So no one can honestly assume that the Spanish public inflicted a huge punishment on the Popular Party government for supporting the war in Iraq."-Dr Kamal

He nailed the whole thing in less than 50 words

"Why do the blowback believers keep ignoring East Timor? It's as though the liberation of that country never happened."

Because the U.S. wasn't involved in freeing that nation, it can't be blamed on Bush. Therefore, in their world, it has no part in the equation, and it didn't, as you say, happen.

The ability to completely ignore information that contradicts their conspiracy theories is what charactarizes the psychotic. I'm just sayin', that's all....

What a pity that Doug Bandow has gone off the deep end. He belongs to the conservative/libertarian right in the US who would have America isolate itself from the rest of the world and become, instead of being a "hegemon" (For a hegemon, we seem to be awfully bad at keeping our hegemony.), into a garrison state.

I once met Mr. Bandow when my group brought him in to speak (Back when "undergraduate" could be applied to me in the present tense.). He was very good talking about economics. However, it would be news to me that the Islamists have built a time-machine...

C.T.

Another spanner in the works: The left-wing Labour-led Government of New Zealand opposed the Liberation of Iraq. They were so proud of participating in the Liberation of East Timor it was prominently featured in Labour's election ads in 2002.

"Why do the blowback believers keep ignoring East Timor? It's as though the liberation of that country never happened."

It's not only because the U.S. wasn't involved, but because, unlike Australia, most of the world has never heard of East Timor. Sad but true.

"1. It was widely known that the Popular Party was expected to win before the massacre when the public already knew about Spain’s role in Iraq. So no one can honestly assume that the Spanish public inflicted a huge punishment on the Popular Party government for supporting the war in Iraq."-Dr Kamal

I don't think it is unreasonable to assume that, although the majority was against Spanish involvement in the Iraq war, the electorate were prepared to let that opposition slide and re-elect the PP because that involvement did not incur significant casualties.

The terrorist bombings, however, would change that calculus (regardless of whether you think linking the bombings to Spanish support for Iraq is justified), and the PP could have paid the electoral price for pursuing a course of action that the majority apparently didn't approve of.

It seems to me a reasonable political analysis, and I think one can honestly assume that it happened to some extent. I'm not sure whether this Dr. Kamal is denying it happened it all, or denying that it played a large part in the election.

Personally, however, I believe that backlash against an unpopular policy (coupled with the insane anti-conservative spin that the Government lost the trust of the people with its blaming of ETA) played a significant part in the election result.

Others may argue over the extent of such factors in the election result (and those pushing an "appeasement" position will obviously want to minimize other factors), but it's dishonest, I believe, to deny such factors exist (to the extent of labelling such analysis insane, right?).