Month: March 2004

Andrew Sullivan discusses Europe’s response to 3/11, and tears appeasement a new hole.

[The Islamist war] existed and grew in strength and potency throughout the 1990s. it draws its roots from the Egyptian Brotherhood in the 1970s and 1980s. It is quite candid in its goals: expulsion of all infidels from Islamic lands, the subjugation of political pluralism to fascistic theocracy, the elimination of all Jews anywhere, the enslavement of women, the murder of homosexuals, and the expansion of a new Islamic realm up to and beyond the medieval boundaries of Islam’s golden past. Bin Laden spoke of reclaiming Andalusia in Spain long before George W. Bush was even president. He was building terror camps and seeking weapons of mass destruction while Bill Clinton was in the White House. Blaming the policeman for exposing and punishing the criminal may feel good temporarily. But it is a fool’s errand.

Read all about it.

Update: BusinessWeek gets in on the action!

Pretty harsh piece in Sunday’s NY Post on Martha Stewart’s kid, Alexis. Why, in only the second paragraph, we get:

Some slam Alexis, 38, as a tightly wound and gloomy introvert who rarely shows emotion–unless she’s nursing a grudge–and hasn’t dealt with the emotional scars of her parents’ bitter divorce.

I’ve done my share of goofing on Martha Stewart, but that’s a rough characterization to wake up to on a Sunday morning (esp. as it could sorta characterize me, on a bad day).

Dawn of the Dead outsells The Passion! Two movies about resurrection dominate the box office! Guess which one has the really gross special effects and shows a guy getting tortured to death?

JJ Jackson, one of the initial five VJs on MTV, died yesterday. Condolences to his family and friends.

The first concert I ever went to was Asia, back in 1983. My mom’s friend John was the band’s financial manager. After the show, we got to go backstage to meet the band and guest emcee that night, MTV VJ Alan Hunter (the blond one)! Trust me: the VJs used to be celebrities. Of course, this was back in the time when MTV showed music videos.

The next concert I went to was Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, with Til Tuesday opening up. I don’t go to shows much anymore, and certainly not “concerts.” Most of the music I listen to nowadays comes from acts that are either dead, defunct, drawn or probably not too good live (unless the audience is dosed on X).

Looks like I was wrong in We Stand Together. The Spanish electorate has spoken, and it’s voted in the socialist party, which plans to withdraw troops from Iraq.

Evidently, the Al Qaeda connection to the Madrid bombings has left the public with little taste for foreign involvement. This, of course, is part of what Al Qaeda seems to want, and what they expected of the U.S. following 9.11. I think the leadership was operating under the Black Hawk Down model, where America would withdraw from conflict as soon as it saw its soldiers in bodybags.

I’m still trying to parse the logic of the left-wing voters in Spain, though. After all, the big outcry against the war in Iraq is that Bush and Blair lied to the world about a connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein’s regime. So, let’s assume that the attacks in Madrid were conducted by Al Qaeda.

If the attack was conducted in response to Spain’s involvement in the war, then it would seem that there is a connection between those two groups, and that the left’s complaints are incorrect. The war, then, was justified to smash a national base for terrorists.

And if Al Qaeda doesn’t have any interest in “avenging” Spanish involvement in Iraq, then the left’s vote against the conservative government makes no sense. Which is to say, the vote for the socialist party smells like appeasement to me. And it makes less sense particularly for Spain, considering Bin Laden’s comments about wanting to restore the Caliphate (which would, y’know, involve taking over Spain).

I have a lot more that I’d like to write/discuss about this subject, but I have a lot of work to do at the day job (conference all week in New York), so I’m going to have to cut this short.

Went to the Spanish Consulate in New York yesterday to bring flowers as a memorial for the victims of the Madrid bombings. Credit to Instapundit for suggesting the idea on his site. Picture of the memorial below. There wasn’t much there, as you can see; the Spanish embassy in Washington received many more signs of support. If you’d like to show your solidarity with the people of Spain, here’s how.

I’m not a terrorism expert, but the initial reports give me the impression that the attack was an al-Qaeda operation, rather than the ETA. After all, “conventional” terrorists tend to claim responsibility and use their attacks to bring attention to a particular cause or grievance. Thus far, we’ve heard nothing about the motivation for the attack, which is why I think that it’s another offensive in the war.

Andrew Sullivan links to an editorial from Le Monde discussing the sea change brought about by the Madrid bombings.

South Korea’s parliament, or an outtake from The Matrix Reloaded?