Speech by Jose Maria Aznar
The
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler links to a
speech from Jose Maria Aznar. You know him as the former Prime Minister of Spain whose election was skewed by the Madrid Terrorist bombings. An appeaser was voted into office as Spain sinks into the shithole of Islamofascist dark ages.
bq. I am an optimist. I do believe terrorism can be defeated. In 1995 ETA ordered my murder, fortunately, I survived a car bomb attack. And though I have seen many friends fall under the bombs and bullets of the Basque nationalist terrorists, I fought them with all the instruments a democracy has, and I have seen them shrinking, weaker and prostrated. Believe me, I know what I’m talking about. And that’s precisely what makes me more confident an optimistic. Victory is possible over our enemies.
bq. ...What I would like to do today is to share with you a few ideas I have developed through the years fighting terrorism. I’m not a futurologist, but I can assure you, by direct or indirect involvement, I know a few things about terror, how to fight it, and above all, how to defeat it. There are only seven points.
bq. 1. Victory is possible if we understand, first of all, what we are up against. This is the classical maxim of the great Chinese thinker, Sunt Zu: “know thy enemy”.
He then proceeds to cite two examples, here is the second:
bq. Bin Laden shares a common characteristic with Adolf Hitler: he writes and says what he intends to do. And his vision and plans are crystal clear. He talks about the land of Islam stretching from Al-Andalus (the name the Muslims used many centuries ago to refer to Spain) to the Philippines. He talks about a kind of government inspired by a literal reading of the Qur’an. He wants his religion ruling our lives. And if or when we can not be ruled or converted, we must be deadly punished and eradicated. Some say Islam is a tolerant faith. But not Bin Laden Islam, that’s for sure.
bq. 2. In order to achieve our victory we must accept and understand that we are at War. Obviously, not a conventional or traditional War, but a new form of conflict. A war that we never look for, but a War that fell upon us just because the implacable logic of our enemy. Bin Laden declared War on us, on the democratic, prosperous, free and basically laicist Western society. And he declared a total War where, according to his view, there is neither room for negotiations nor peace agreements.
bq. 3. The fact that we are in an all-out war - them or us - means that we must pursue an active policy, one that seeks to ensure a victory, rather than simply cobbling together a provisional solution to the problem. In other words, a policy of containment, which was applied to the former USSR, is not viable. Whether good or bad, Moscow accepted the game of spheres of influence, whilst the geo-strategic frontiers were always very clear. Islamic fundamentalists do not recognize or respect any frontiers at all. They attack us on our own ground because that is their favorite theatre of war.
bq. 4. To do so we must know that we are fighting against not only a group or terrorist movement, but against an ideology. Thus, going over and chasing the terrorists is not the end of the problem. We also have to fight their cause.
bq. 5. Every war has its Central Front. In the Cold War it was Germany; today, in the war against Islamic terror, it is Iraq. This we must understand and accept. Those who have chosen a political and strategic agenda made of antiamericanism or against the US hegemony, are blind to the many perils of failing in Iraq. They are blind to the reading fundamentalist terrorists will do in such a scenario, the feeling of success they will experience, and the new impetus they will gain.
bq. 6. Being that Islamic terrorism is a global phenomenon, international cooperation is an indisputable fact. However, we should not overestimate or delude ourselves as to its possible results. International collaboration is always difficult, and this is even more the case within the field of counter-terrorism.
bq. 7. Finally, I have to remind you that the new terrorism does not put an end to the old forms of terror. Unfortunately we know that in Spain, having suffered ETA attacks for more that 30 years now. But there is something we must understand and be clear about: Violence and terror must be condemned in all circumstances. There are no, and can be no, good and bad forms of terrorism.
I have excerpted heavily - the entire speech should take about ten minutes to read and it is worth doing so. Nice to know that
someone gets it and that they are on American soil working with the scholars at Georgetown.
Posted by DaveH at October 1, 2004 7:52 PM