Successful Strategic Bombing

[bemildred]

Old, but seems worth it.

In one of history?s shortest and most successful strategic bombing campaigns, Islamic Fourth
Generation forces have brought about ?regime change? in Spain. The conservative Popular
Party, which had allied itself closely with American President George W. Bush and sent Spanish
troops to Iraq, was badly defeated in Spain?s national election following last week?s bombings on
Spanish commuter trains. As one Popular Party MP said to the Washington Post, ?The terrorists
have killed 200 people and defeated the government - they have achieved all their objectives.?
The new Spanish government will be headed by the Socialist Party, which has promised to pull
the Spanish army out of Iraq, withdraw from the U.S.-British axis and realign Madrid with Paris,
Berlin and Moscow.

How could a strategic bombing campaign waged with a handful of explosives-filled backpacks
attain such dramatic results when strategic by bombing fleets of aircraft has usually failed?
The answer lies not in the purely military sphere but in the larger field of politics, where
Spain?s Popular Party government had left itself extraordinarily vulnerable.

The Popular Party?s error was trying to wage a cabinet war typical of the 18th century under
modern conditions. In terms of national interests, Spain had nothing at stake in America?s
war with Iraq. Polls indicated that the Spanish people were strongly opposed to sending the
tercios to Iraq, by as much as 90%. But the Popular Party?s Prime Minister, Jose Maria
Aznar, saw a chance to get his name up in lights. And he did, with frequent invitations to
the White House and even President Bush?s Texas ranch. He felt like one of the big boys,
and the price seemed small - a few dead Spanish soldiers. Like Bush and Blair, he assumed
that war could be a one-way street where only the enemy suffered.

And now he?s out in the cold, his party defeated in an election the polls said it would handily
win. The Madrid bombings brought the war home to Spanish soil, which suddenly made
Spain?s participation in it issue number one. Why was Spain in Iraq? The government had
no answer, because there really was none.

Free Congress Foundation