Dam!!! Here we go again! 10 bombs at three train stations in Madrid. 186 Dead over 1000 wounded. We can only sit back and wait for the consequences of their actions to unfold. Why? Why the F$#k? What does it do for anyones purpose? Win support of the masses? I don’t think so.
Who was it? If it is ETA, their screwed. If it is Osam’ s buddies. Thier screwed? Now all of Europe is going to jump right into the War ofon terror.
:bluemad: :raspberry:
My sympathies go out to those killed and their families.
Presumably it was Basque separtists. Unfortunately, terrorism gets the world’s attention, so if your group and its (originally perfectly legitimate) aspirations are being ignored, terrorism is one way to try to achieve your goals. It’s the same kind of situation as Chechenya. I cannot support their actions in Moscow, but Russia slaughtered Chechenyans for years and no one paid any attention. A few bombs and many dead Russian civilians later, and people have at least heard of the conflict.
Batasuna, a banned political party connected with ETA, has denied responsibility. The Batasuna statement said the attack was probably done by muslim forces in revenge for Spain’s support of the US-UK attack on Iraq. (This was reported on TV and on the BBC’s web site. All the Spanish on-line media I can find are still blaming ETA for the bombing.)
p.s. Found out in the process of compiling this post that in Euskerra (Basque) “X” is pronounced in a similar way to its reading in Hanyu pinyin - as in txalaparta.
A group in France were, as of last week, extorting money from the French government by planting bombs along railway lines and in stations. They knew the threat to be real as they had been led to one bomb site minutes before it exploded by communication through the classifieds section of a newspaper.
The Basques have as much reason to blow up Madrid as the Welsh have to blow up London.
No…it’s not them. Who knows who’s responsible - but I doubt it’s the Basque separatists. They’ve never been seriously violent on such a massive scale before, and to do so out of the blue like this is highly out of character.
They’re reporting on CNN this morning that they found some detonators and a tape with Quranic verses on it in a van. So, the Spanish Interior Minister is now saying that they’re not ruling out any possibilities. Personally, I doubt that it’s ETA. I’d say it’s Al Qaeda. Spain was one of the biggest supporters in the war on terror and the war in Iraq. I agree with Mod Lang – ETA has never done anything like this before … Al Qaeda has.
Can’t seem to find the name of the group mentioned anywhere now, but early reports said that a little-known or previously-unknown Islamic group claimed responsibility for doing the bombings for the benefit of al Qaeda.
[begin Rasquale mode]
However, since the group clearly isn’t al Qaeda itself, and the bombs weren’t personally detonated by Osama bin Laden, this obviously has no relevance to the War on Terror. U.S. out of Iraq! Bush lied.
[end Rasquale mode]
If Islamic terror group(s) are cooperating with ETA, it makes the case for the theory that terrorists are stronger, more coordinated and more motivated after the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
According to the German radio there have been indications that ETA was planning something bigger, so it cannot be concluded they were not responsible.
There are also reports about claims by Al Kaida being responsible but it’s not proven yet, the Spanish authorties are therefore looking into all directions.
Well, if you apply this logic to 911 it would have been highly unlikely that Al Kaida was responsible since they have never done anything like that (flying not one but two planes into a high rise and killing thousands).
So shall we bomb, say North Korea, now? Iraq had no link to Al Kaida nor Afghanistan, and since there is no link between Al Kaida / Spain to North Korea it would make a good target nevertheless. I am sure Bush could give a few speeches mentioning Spain and North Korea together to “convince his people” …
I’d say it could well have been done by Islamic terrorists working in collaboration with people on the extremist fringe of ETA.
It’s hard to believe that the mainstream of ETA would ever consider carrying out such a horrific slaughter, as it must certainly do their cause infinitely more harm than good. Also, in the past they have mainly targeted representatives of the police, military and government, and tried hard to avoid unnecessary civilian casualties. The scale and indiscriminate barbarity of the attacks are much closer to what we’ve come to expect of Islamic fanatics, but the apparent absence of suicide bombers and the fact that the explosives used were of the type usually favoured by ETA may possibly point to the kind of collaboration that I’ve suggested.
But whoever was responsible, let us hope that they will be tracked down, apprehended, put on trial and punished as quickly as possible – though justice will only truly be done if the killers pay for these crimes with their lives.
Ah, it all doesn’t really matter anyway. The world is going to hell very soon anyway. The Big Bang was 13.7 billion years ago and human life, in the big picture of things, is nothing. We are a dream God has been dreaming. Spain, Chechen, Gaza, Twin Towers, Oklahoma City, the poison gas subway guru in Tokyo, the Killing Fields, human life is of very little value in the big scheme of things. We are all goners, in the long run. In the end, the bad guys win. And then maybe once more, with passion, the Big Bang again.
Don’t read the papers. Don’t watch TV. Stay home and watch a good DVD in sensorosound. Beer, popcorn, friends.
Terrorism like that is self-defeating. Why do they do it? Out of desperation and martyr’s dreams? Or do they have a game plan? Seems humanity is deeply out of joint at this point in H history.
I belive those who bombed Madrid or anywhere else have similar thoughts like sandman or lane119. It is very easy to convince or mislead the people to be martyr in Philistian, Chechnia or Iraq. Vengeance is one of the worse sins and sure will be the main reason which will bring the world’s end.
Tell that to my sister’s friend in hospital with her right hand gone and her forearm shattered into pieces, still in shock, partly because she had to pick bits of blown up baby out of her hair.
She’s an artist, did I mention that, or at least she was until yesterday.
I’m not a vengeful man – or at least, I wasn’t – but there comes a time when turning the other cheek simply makes you a wimped-out panty waister.
Anyway, its not really vengeance when you’re dealing with scum that aren’t even as high on the evolutionary chain as single-celled animals.
Think of it more as disinfection.
It is always more painful when it is closer to home.
Imagine the terrible rage that the 10,000 families in Iraq must feel over the deaths of their civilian loved ones because of the US invasion. Iraq Body Count
The US has enraged the hydra, and cutting off one head only serves to allow two to grow in its place.
