March 14th 2004: The neo-cons' Stalingrad

[Capt_Nemo]

The neo-cons have suffered their biggest defeat to date, at the hands
of the spanish people.

I am absolutely amazed at the show of political maturity my brothers
and sisters across the border dispalayed, particularly when in my own country
people only care about soccer and reality shows, while force-fed
the neo-con talking points by pseudo-pundits that parrot the soundbites they read in the Anglo-Saxon press.

The spanish people refused to be blackmailed by their fear-mongering
goverment into the support of bankrupt anti-terrorist policies
whose predictable blow-back plunged their nation into mourning last
Thursday.

The message from Spain is simple: the politics of fear no longer work.

The spanish people know, and have shown the whole world that the
choice between the neo-cons and the islamic terrorists is a false one.
Indeed they are the two faces of the same coin, both have blood of
innocents on their hands (by now the neo-cons have far more than
their foes). To fight the terrorists the neo-cons have also to be
fought. Bush said "you're either with us or with the terrorists",
spaniards told him the only reply he deserved "F*** YOU!"

The spanish people know that the aggression against Iraq has only
played into the hands of islamic terrorists by handing them the
best recruting tool since the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. The
spanish people want islamic terrorists to be fought but know that
victory can only be achieved by political means in the shape of
a just peace in the Middle East, and that is anathema to the
neo-cons.

27 year old spanish democracy has now put the 200 year old faltering
american experiment to shame. What are americans going to do about
it?

On Edit: Some of the same people that were praising the spanish people maturity
during the Friday demonstrations, because they thought it would
benefit the neo-con stooges, are now insulting them as appeasers.
But the spanish people know that the real appeasers are the aggression
apologists, and they don't care what they think!

[ithacan]

1. they know what fascism is

I think this is a key point. Spain lived under fascism for decades, so they know what's at stake.

All too many Americans, fed lies by the mass media, are ready to support our very own fascists out of fear.

[indepat]

3. And those willing to give up their freedom for a little supposed security

soon will deservedly have neither. Thanks, Benjamin, wish I could have thought up that one.

[markus]

2. A most meritourus bump

Soon, Powell will be out excoriating the Spanish voters, and his nastier cohorts in crime will not be far behind, trumpeting their "A Vote for the Terrorists" message. This will be the message of our campaign--a vote for Kerry is a vote for bin Laden--and they will mis no opportunity to use it.

I don't think our response can be too nuanced. It needs to be direct as the above: the neo-cons and the terrorists both seek to remake the world through violence and the resulting fear. They are truly two sides of the same coin.