In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
Got this link from Atrios
The answer to terror is plain
Are the Spanish cowardly for tossing out their pro-Iraq intervention government? Or are they wise?
Hawks in America were quick to embrace Spain in the wake of the terror bombings in Madrid last week. "We Are All Spaniards Now," proclaimed the lead editorial in The New York Sun. The goal of such punditry, of course, was to keep Spaniards - and Americans - from grasping the full downside of the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive strikes on other countries, notably Iraq.
But now that the pro-intervention Popular Party (PP) has been defeated, to be replaced by the anti-intervention Socialists, American hawks are reversing course, accusing Spain of "appeasing" terror. Peter Robinson, writing in Nationalreview.com, lamented, "Terrorists have now succeeded in producing a change in government in a major Western European nation."
Not exactly. What happened was that Spaniards went to the polls and rejected the PP's pro-Bush policy.
...
The lesson of Madrid was clear enough. Those Spanish troops currently hunkering down in Iraq, dodging snipers, could have been used instead to secure "soft targets" on the homefront, guarding Spain's borders and transport system.
So what will the incoming Zapatero government do in regard to security policy? Here's a prediction: Even as he honors his campaign promise to withdraw his country's troops from Iraq, Zapatero will take obvious and commonsensical measures to improve Spain's homeland security. That is, he will tighten up on border enforcement, scrutinize aliens more closely and improve security around public places. And he will even work closely with allies in "Old Europe."
Indeed, Americans might wish to study Spain's alternative approach to national defense. Voters here might wonder why it's a good idea to have 130,000 American troops in Iraq - while our own borders are sparsely monitored and our own rail system is wide open to terror bombing. And why does the Bush administration wish to spend $200 billion to "liberate" Iraq, but just $40 billion for the Department of Homeland Security this year?
Finally, Americans might ask themselves the most basic question of all: Has the invasion of Iraq really made the United States safer?
Whose this paid comrade of Kerry who wrote this you ask? James P. Pinkerton
James P. Pinkerton has been a columnist for Newsday since 1993. Prior to that, he worked in the White House under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, and also in the 1980, 1984, 1988, and 1992 Republican presidential campaigns.
- rob 3:24 PM - [PermaLink] -
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