Appeasement and Spain

I am sick of morons talking about what a cowardly nation of appeasers the Spanish are.

What no one seems willing to understand is that the Spanish people never thought that the war in Iraq was doing anything effective against terror. They saw it as a needless provocation against the Arabs. Moreover, they were miffed when Aznar sent Spanish troops anyway, over their objections. Nonetheless, most Spanish people cared more about other issues, and so were willing to vote for Aznar anyway. So when they were attacked, the costs of the war in Iraq, and the consequences, seemed a lot more serious to them than it had, and the natural response to the Prime Minister was to throw him out of office. This wasn't because the Spanish were too cowardly to continue the fight against terror in the face of terrorist attacks, it was because they decided that what they felt was an unproductive policy changed from a minor liability to a major one. I doubt that very many Spanish supporters of the war turned anti-war as a result; rather those who were anti-war suddenly moved the war issue up on their agenda.

Therefore, the real issue as to how these attacks will alter Britain's response to the war on terror is based on what percentrage of the British public see Iraq as important to the war on terror. If a large number think that being in Iraq is helpful, that is, if the British public supports Blair's decision to go to war, I would imagine that these attacks would strengthen Britain's resolve. If Blair went to war against the will of the British people, they will proably blame him.

That is all.