U.S. appeasement warning to Spain

[DuctapeFatwa]

U.S. Republicans have charged Spain's new government with appeasing terrorists as politicians accuse rivals of exploiting the Iraq war for election-year advantage in a bitter House of Representatives debate.

As the dust settled from a deadly explosion at a Baghdad hotel, Republicans trained their fire on Spain. The pro-Bush government was replaced in an election on Sunday, days after a series of train bombings and the new government has promised to pull Spanish troops from Iraq.

"Here is a country that stood against terrorism, and had a huge terrorist act within their country, and they chose to change their government and to in a sense appease terrorists," House Speaker Dennis Hastert said on Wednesday

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040318/325/eouqr.html

[bemildred]

1. They really are dumb as shit.

Do they really expect Spain to say "Yassuh boss" when
they spew this crap out?

[truthisfreedom]

20. bushco believes they can rule the world with threats. they have so many

other countries hating us and doing their bidding against their will...

[Born Free]

25. bush team lost

The terrorist didn't "win" the bush team drove the people of Spain away. This was not a statement on terrorism but on teh bush teams approach to dominating the world. In the ned the people felt the bush team was the biggest threat to the world. However, rather than admit it the bush team will spin it much the way they claim anyone that questions any of their follish decisions as being unpatriotic. Time is running out on the bush team, as part of the old saying goes you can't fool all the people all the time.

[0007]

29. Here is a good example of (junior's) democracy

"You're either with us or against us"
junior's way or the highway
vs. 90% of what the folks in Spain want -

Are we witnessing Nazi tactics or democracy?

[chookie]

36. The timing is a teensy bit bad, doncha think?

Gee -- aren't they still reeling from a horrific attack in Madrid last week? What was it -- 25 MILLION Spaniards marched in a demonstration! Landslide victory for the opposition candidate. Anyone think that the Spanish are feeling pretty energized and united about their own interests these days? I think so.

Personally, I would not be tweaking their noses so soon after a horrific tragedy -- I don't think they'll appreciate it very much.

Everybody loves to say -- "Remember Sept 11!!!" Well, one of the many things I remember about that day was how many Spanish people wept with us that day.

[SOS]

38. You are absolutely right

Bush issues a six sentence statement on the Madrid bombing. Powell can't even bother to visit.
There were candlelight vigils all over Europe after 9/11.
What did the US do for Spain, other than Rumsfeld blaming the wrong group for personal political gain?
Witnessing the US nonchalance towards the suffering in Spain will end Bush's coalition. "New Europe's" eyes are being opened as to the nature of Bush's "friendship".
Now Hastert insults them on top of ignoring them!
Hastert is playing politics with terror victims. The dirty Republicans are laying a rhetorical foundation here, talking to US voters, rather than addressing the pain of the Spanish people. They will pay for this sickening self-centeredness when Poland, Italy, Japan and Holland withdraw from Iraq on June 30.
Power has been legally transferred...Bye, bye Mr. Bush!

[thebigidea]

2. 'spose this year's slogan will be: "A vote for Kerry = a vote to appease"

[Crachet2004]

6. This is why the Democrat Party has had to give them everything they...

asked for...otherwise they would beat us to death with it. They can't say it for that reason, but if we win Kerry will de-emphasize the war in a hurry-I hope.

[saigon68]

22. MOST of these CHALLENGERS = DRAFT DODGERS

Look at the Brave CHICKEN HAWKS !!!!!

Hastert-- Cheney----Wolfowitz et al.

They not only send your children to be killed. They have plans to start a draft and attack more Countries.

They are War Criminals, Thugs and Hooligans on an international scale.

This doesn't even cover the Clueless Puppet leader of the Corporate Ruling Class

The Hon. CHIMPANZEE McSHRUB himself !!!!

[kitkatrose]

30. We really need to run an ad

with the names of all the chicken hawks in the * administration.

[Iceburg]

39. Not a dodger ... a liar

In actual fact the real draft dodgers were brave -- they stood up for there beliefs and left their country, family and friends behind believing (at that time) they would could never return.

However, Cheney, AWOL, Wolfowitz et al hid behind phony medical certificates, bumped queues in the Guard to hide in "safe" places all the while pretending to be serving their country. That's sick and cowardly.

[Bandit]

34. I have a better one ~ "It All Happened Under Bush*'s Watch"

No matter what they say the Fact is it happened under Bush*

[specter]

3. same old logic

If your not with us your a terrorist! Will be boycotting the spanish next! What a fucked up world we live in

[NV1962]

4. Here is a country that tells a government run by a liar where to go

Follow the lead!

And after regime change, let's get down to business and finish off the terrorists without a fuss or photo-ops.

And salvage the Federal budget.

And save education for future Americans - the ones that will pay off W's debts.

And get as many of 44 million people as possible health care insurance.

And get as many of over 3 million homeless people as possible off the streets.

And get as many of the 2.9 million lost private sector jobs as possible back to the country.

And make the country a beacon of inspiration and trust abroad again.

And get Ken Lay and his fellow white collar colossal criminals in jail.

And a list of other things that fell by the wayside.

And then, if all goes well, name an airport after George W Bush, just to appease the domestic political terrorists.

[Rex]

5. Almost all of Spain was against invading Iraq.

The conservatives in power had their own Spanish version of an 'October Surprise', and it backfired on them. Will the Repuke dipshits learn from this political gambit? Naw, not a chance in hell.

[Kool Kitty]

7. Just don't get it, do ya, Denny?

The former Spanish government lied, you familiar with the word, Denny?-LIED about who was responsible for the attack. They withheld evidence from the people and the people responded the best way that they could. They voted the lying bastards OUT. Get it, Dennis, or is it too tough for you-if you get caught lying to the people about such a momentous event, if you try to shift the blame to the people that you most want to slander, you lose. Tell your boss. And tell your boss that the Spanish people were, by and large, against the Iraqi war. That may have been the biggest factor.

[pfitz59]

8. Hastert and Delay

Two turds from different pastures. What horrible image they project.

[madrchsod]

9. jesus christ

this guy and his wife were school teachers.. worse is that no one will run against him.

[saigon68]

37. He's a Chicken Hawk

And a coward who sends poor kids to be killed.

[nicecakes]

10. No need for appeasement when Al Qaeda Letter Calls for Truce in Spain

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=721&e=4&u=/nm

[Kool Kitty]

11. Whatever story that link you posted was for,

is gone now. What did that story say?

[nicecakes]

13. It started here...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x428319

[Kool Kitty]

14. Thanks.

[w4rma]

17. written by someone who had falsely claimed the same thing before

...
A shadowy Islamic group that claimed responsibility for the Madrid train bombings in a letter to a newspaper in London last week called an end to its "operations" in Spain on Wednesday while the new Spanish government considered withdrawing troops from Iraq.

The new letter was faxed to the newspaper Al Hayat. But the Spanish questioned its authenticity, noting that the group, Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, had also falsely claimed responsibility for last summer's blackout in New York and did not have the ability to declare a truce.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/18/international/europe/18SPAI.html
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x429228

[Manix]

12. Rush you have company since Hastert is also a big fat idiot!

[cliss]

15. What else can they say?

Think about it. The Repugnant Repugs just had the wind knocked out of them. This is humiliating. Worse than that. It may give other countries in Europe the idea that they can follow Spain's lead.

"Well, they're giving in to the terrorists". "They're folding, they're weak".

You can bet there are some sweaty armpits right now. Some late-night conferences with long tables and everyone in attendance. I'm visualizing quite a few generals pounding their fists on the table. Lots of cussing.

"What do we do now?"

There's only one thing they can do now. And that's to tighten the vice. To soften now will invite disaster. This is Bush's show, and he's going to go the distance. He doesn't care if they want to or not.

[bemildred]

16. But it's too late.

There is no vice to tighten.
You can't threaten someone unless you have something
they are afraid of. They could make nice and work things
out and negotiate in good faith. But that would be smart.
You are right, no chance of that.

[ConcernedCanuk]

19. "There is no vice to tighten." - absolutely right .

.
.
.

Don't think the world hasn't noticed that Canada and Mexico didn't join in Bush's slaughter

and we're still here.

And we're Junior's friggen neighbors!

(gawd save us)

[minkyboodle]

18. where do they get off

I mean really....
Scott

[T_i_B]

21. Spain got the point

http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,2763,1170977,00.html

Maybe they think it's payback time. In 2001, many American conservatives were appalled by the reaction in some European quarters to 9/11, a reaction crudely summarised as "America had it coming". They insisted it was grossly insensitive to attack the United States and its foreign policy while Ground Zero still smouldered. They were right and I took their side, urging people at least to pause a while before adding greater hurt to an already traumatised nation.

But look what's happening now. A matter of days after the event branded Europe's 9/11, and American conservatives - including some of the very people who were so outraged by the criticisms hurled at the US in September 2001 - have started whacking not just Spanish policy, but the Spanish people.

The first mistake is the more surprising, for no word is invoked more often in support of the "war on terror" than democracy. Yet these insults hurled at the Spanish show a sneaking contempt for the idea. For surely the Spanish did nothing more on Sunday than exercise their democratic right to change governments. They elected the Socialist party; to suggest they voted for al-Qaida is a slur not only on the Spanish nation but on the democratic process itself, implying that when terrorists strike political choice must end.

It comes from the same mentality that prompted Republicans in 2002 to run TV ads against the Democratic senator Max Cleland, who lost three limbs in the Vietnam war, placing his face alongside those of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. It is the same thinking that led one Republican congressman to quip recently that a vote in November for John Kerry will be a vote for Osama. It is a bid to reshape the political landscape, so that parties of the right stand on one side and all the rest are lumped in with al-Qaida. The tactic is McCarthyite, the natural extension of the bullying insistence that, in President Bush's own words, "You are either with us or you're with the terrorists". If that is the choice, then there is no choice: it is a mandate for a collection of one-party states.

[sidpleasant]

32. Republicans hate the Spanish for their freedom (nt)

nt

[Crunchy Frog]

23. There was a wonderful article

in The Onion several months ago called "Bush eyes Spain for Invasion", or something close to that. I wish I could find the link for it.

Anyway, I wonder If it might have been prophetic?

[dand]

24. You can smell the fear........

Democracy terrifies these thuggish bastards, we need to fear too, *'s favorite joke is that a dictatorship would be easier to govern.

[BiggJawn]

26. Maybe they'll all quit in disgust when we "dump Gump"....

What is it with the ReTHUGlicans in the US House of Representatives? I have this mental picture of them, since the era of Newt Gingrich and his "Gang" that they are a bunch of small-minded, extremely partisan, frustrated little boys (not sexually frustrated, most of them cheat on their wives) Who, if common sense was gasoline, couldn't fuel a piss-ant's mo-ped.

Stupid bills designed to breech the "wall of seperation" betwixt church and state, Bills to put Ronaldus Rex on a dime because "He let Americans keep more of their dimes" (yeah, that's ALL I had back then, DIMES, instead of DOLLARS)

Does anyone else think the ReTHUG side of the House is nothing more than a pit of moronic Freepers?

[matcom]

27. i hate my country

truly

[tlcandie]

28. Maybe we should all start wearing black ...

I'm mourning the loss of the country I believed I lived in at one time! You know people aren't perfect... speaking of politicians, but this cabal is outrageous and beyond overlooking WAY beyond that!

BLACK would be a good color for dems to wear until we take back our country if this cabal doesn't pull us into lockdown mode to steal the election :/

[Barkley]

31. More & more people are express the very same sentiments

Like Randall Robinson, many people are 'Giving up on America'.
Some are actively seeking to leave.
Four years ago it was unheard of; but today it is reality.

[k in IA]

33. Don't hate your country - remember, most people did not vote

for these jackasses and a lot of people that did have been shocked at how they have led. Hell, I knew it would be a nightmare if * became prez but I would never have imagined he would do as much damage to the country, the world and everyones future as he actually has - It is astounding.

[a_random_joel]

35. Hastert is an idiot.

I am not surprised by his ignorance at all.

Angry as hell, but not surprised.

[democrank]

40. Heard on Washington Journal today

that Republicans were thinking about banning the import of olives. Stop laughing, it`s a true story. Bad Spain. Bad France.