Ann, you have to keep in mind that Al-Queda's goal in Spain was to get Spanish troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, not to occupy and run the country. They succeeded. That sure looks like a win to me.
Terry, a very clear majority of the Spanish people were against the idea that Spanish troops should be sent to fight a war in Iraq. The Spanish government was certainly within its rights to send troops there anyway, because that is what representative democracy is all about: the people elect their own government and the government makes decisions for them. However, precisely because the government can make very unpopular decisions, they are obliged to regularly put their power at stake in general elections. If the voters are unhappy with their government's overall performance, they will send their government packing and get themselves other representatives to make decisions for them.
That is what happened in Spain. The people didn't want Spanish troops to be sent to Iraq. The right-wing government sent troops to Iraq anyway. Before the upcoming election, the left-wing party promised to bring the Spanish troops home from Iraq, if it won the election. Three days before the election, Al Queda attacked Madrid. The right-wing government refused to even acknowledge the possibility that the terrorist attack may have been the work of Al Queda, and instead they blamed the local Basque terrorist organisation, the ETA. Instead of trying to argue that Spain fought a larger war, and that terrorist attacks may be the cost that Spain had to pay in order to help win a war that might bring democracy to the Middle East, the Spanish government stuck their heads in the sand and refused to even discuss and defend the costs of the unpopular war in Iraq. A majority of the Spanish people may not have bought the idea that Spain ought to make itself a target for Al Qeada in order to bring democracy to the Middle East, or that a victory in Iraq was in any way necessary in the larger fight for freedom, but the Spanish government did not even try.
A majority of the Spanish people were outraged at the fact that their government had not only sent troops to Iraq, but now they refused to acknowledge the possibility that Spain had suffered an Al Queda attack because of it. The Spanish people wanted to get rid of their present government, and they wanted the Spanish troops to be brought home from Iraq. So they voted for the left-wing party, which had promised to bring the Spanish troops home.
The left-wing party won. It had promised to take the Spanish troops home from Iraq, so it did.
You may call that surrender to Al Queda, Terry. I call it democracy.
Ann
