[lit-ideas] Re: Europe's September 11 ?
- From: "Phil Enns" <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 15:39:17 -0500
David Savory wrote:
"Spain's foreign policy is now where people wanted it all along."
Not quite. As David himself pointed out, the incumbent government,
which supported the U.S./U.K. coalition in Iraq, was headed towards
re-election. This suggests that while the vast majority of people in
Spain disagreed with the government's foreign policy, they were willing
to keep the government and by extension its foreign policy. That
Spain's foreign policy has changed is an immediate result of the terror
attacks and not because the 'people wanted it all along'. More
accurately, Spain's foreign policy is now where the terrorists wanted it
all along.
To be clear, I am not suggesting that Spain has 'gone soft'. Rather, I
would like to suggest that circumstances have put Spain in a very
difficult position where it must respect the people's objection to
Spain's involvement in Iraq while at the same time acting aggressively
and effectively against terrorism. Much of the blame for this difficult
position can, in my opinion, be laid at the feet of the Bush
administration and its disdain of anything requiring co-operation with
the international community. However, as I noted in my comments to
Andreas, locating blame is not necessarily helpful in finding a path
forward.
Sincerely,
Phil Enns
Toronto, ON
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