By your logic, I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away

Monday, February 9, 2009

Last month I noted that the GOP talking points include an assertion that Bush was a fantastically successful president because no further terrorist attacks occurred. That's like saying I am perfectly healthy and fit because I haven't had another heart attack.

Glenn Greenwald over at Salon points out another view of this — that the Bush strategy of military action and wasps' nest stirring is just as successful as... pulling out and leaving them alone.

In 2004, Al Qaeda bombed the Madrid subway. The Spanish government then withdrew from Iraq and gave the accused terrorists full due process rights -- and there have been no terrorist attacks since.

BBC - March 11, 2004:
Powerful explosions have torn through three Madrid train stations during the morning rush hour, with latest reports speaking of 173 people killed.
Near simultaneous blasts hit Atocha station in the centre of the Spanish capital and two smaller stations.

Guardian - March 15, 2004 (4 days later):
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, whose socialist party yesterday won a sensational election victory, today vowed to pull Spanish troops out of Iraq.
The prime minister elect used his first full media interview since last night to affirm that he intended to follow through on what had become a key election promise.
"The Spanish troops in Iraq will come home," he told Cadena Ser radio.

Associated Press - April 19, 2004:
Spain's prime minister yesterday ordered Spanish troops pulled out of Iraq as soon as possible, fulfilling a campaign pledge to a nation recovering from terrorist bombings that Al Qaeda militants said were reprisal for Spain's support of the war.

BBC - May 21, 2004:
The last Spanish soldiers withdrawing from Iraq have crossed the border to Kuwait, fulfilling the new Spanish government's pledge to pull out.
The final contingent handed over its base in the southern town of Diwaniyah to US forces before departing.

The Los Angeles Times - November 1, 2007:
A Spanish court Wednesday convicted 21 men in the 2004 bombings of Madrid’s train system, the deadliest terrorist attack in continental Europe, but acquitted an Egyptian national whom authorities once touted as the mastermind. . . .
The investigation eventually revealed a “franchise” of Islamic militants, inspired by Al Qaeda but who originated in the Maghreb region of northern Africa. . . .

Number of terrorist attacks by Islamic radicals on Spain since March, 2004 -- i.e., the last 5 years: none.

Using the prevailing media-logic applied to Bush's counter-terrorism policies such as torture and Guantanamo (i.e., if a country is attacked by Terrorists, its Government then does X, and there are no Terrorist attacks for some period of time thereafter, then that is "proof" that "X stops Terrorism"), I believe these events in Spain constitute proof that the way to stop Terrorism and to keep the citizenry safe is to stop invading and occupying Muslim countries and take accused Terrorists and put them on trial with full due process rights before putting them in cages for life. After all, that's what Spain did, and there's not been another Terrorist attack for five years. Therefore, those policies have kept the Spanish people safe.

Perhaps the SImpsons explained it best:

Homer: Not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol must be working like a charm.

Lisa: That's specious reasoning, Dad.

Homer: Thank you, dear.

Lisa: By your logic I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.

Homer: Oh, how does it work?

Lisa: It doesn't work.

Homer: Uh-huh.

Lisa: It's just a stupid rock.

Homer: Uh-huh.

Lisa: But I don't see any tigers around, do you?

[A beat]

Homer: Lisa, I want to buy your rock.

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