Spanish lie

Editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez, the Los Angeles Times’ ill-chosen successor to Paul Conrad, yesterday offered his vile take on the Socialist triumph in Spain: The cartoon pictured successful candidate Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero hand-in-upraised-hand with a blood-spattered terrorist. This misleading image reflects the spin one finds on Fox news and other GOP propaganda organs: Zapatero’s victory is a victory for terror.

Wrong. It's a victory for truth and democracy. The Socialist candidate won for two reasons:

1. The vast majority (some say 90%) of the Spanish electorate opposed the Iraq war. Jose Maria Aznar, the outgoing right-wing Popular party leader, dragged the people into a conflict they did not want. Only Americans confuse the war on al-Qaida with the war to control the oil fields; everyone else sees the two issues as separate.

2. Aznar lied. Outrageously. When the Madrid bombings occurred, he personally assured the nation that responsibility rested with the Basque separatist group ETA. He decreed “case closed” even before the cops began their detective work. And he continued to scapegoat ETA even after clues pointed toward Islamic extremists.

Why did he pretend to solve the crime before the police had investigated? Obviously, Aznar did not want his people to surmise that fealty to Bush came at the price of Spanish blood. So Aznar lied.

Even his sycophants in the state press hated having to mouth the "case closed" canard. Meanwhile, the uncontrolled press -- and the internet -- publicized evidence pointing to Al-Qaida, evidence censored on right-wing broadcasts. The government rapidly developed a bad case of credibility gap.

Outrage against governmental disinformation -- not fear of al-Qaida -- caused a decisive shift against Aznar’s party.

Will the new Spanish government be “soft on terror,” as our neocon propagandists insist? Doubtful. After the horrors of the Madrid attack, Spaniards won’t stand for half-hearted measures, and the Socialists have a history of being tough on terror (a fact many Americans may refuse to believe). When that party was in power before, they employed death squads to battle ETA. Not at all the right approach, but you can't call it soft.

GOPropagandists have already started to damn Spain as a part of “Old Europe” -- as opposed to the dynamic new Europe of...what? Bosnia? The Ukraine? Let’s hope the American people can see past the name-calling and grab hold of a clue: “Old Europe” is an economic powerhouse, financially healthier than we are, and getting better all the time. Many believe the Euro will soon replace the dollar as the standard currency for oil purchases. If that switch occurs, and if (as seems likely) the dollar continues to fall against the Euro, oil prices in America may well make the most dramatic ascent since Montgolfier. And that's when things will start to get really bad.