Juan Cole reflects on the US reaction to the bombing in Madrid by ETA, a Basque separatist group:
I was struck at how little coverage US news organizations were giving this terrorist strike. If the Bush administration were serious about fighting terrorism, surely the FBI and CIA would be flying off to Madrid and trying to catch the perpetrators? There would be extensive consultations between Bush and Prime Minister Zapatero about cooperation in fighting these groups.
If these bombings had been carried out by al-Qaeda, it would be front-page news and something of concern to Washington.
That it isn’t raises the question of anti-Muslimism. Is the difference in the way that the American press responds to ETA from the way it responds to al-Qaeda a form of racism?
It seems like not all terrorism is terrorism, and not all terrorism is considered a threat!
Hi everybody,
(Firstly, excuse me for my poor “engrish”).
Here in Spain we don’t understand why, all over the world but here, ETA is called: “a Basque separatist group”. ETA is just a terrorist group.
Too many years ago (20+ years), Spain was under a dictatorship. There were no freedom in my country. Then, ETA was born in a region of Spain (Euskadi), to fight for their freedom. That could be called “a Basque separatist group”. There were no other way to get what they wanted.
Now, 20 years later, there are a stable democracy in Spain. If a region want their independence there are democratic ways to get it. There are “Basque separatist” political parties in Euskadi (and of course they don’t want ETA!). ETA is just a terrorist group, without a clear target. (They kill everybody that don’t think like them, don’t mind: Euskadi people, Spanish people, men, women, child, politicians, policemen, teachers, butchers, everybody)
By the way, today ETA has bombed Spain again -small artifacts-. 7 new bombs in 7 different cities. (curiously, Today we are celebrating in Spain the XXVI commemoration of our constitution, the constitution that brought us the freedom)
Please,
don’t talk about ETA as “a Basque separatist group” anymore. Would you call the terrorist that attacked NY (11-S) as a “God sends”?
See you !
Javi
The main reason for the difference in the press coverage is not that we are anti-muslem or pro Basque. But simply that the Basque’s haven’t attacked us. I’ve been to the Basque region of Spain & I never felt threatened. Right now I wouldn’t travel to the middle east at all. The Basque’s have only attacked the people who they feel are actually oppressing them. We put the PLO into the same general category as the Basque’s until they decided to kill us. We are a freedom loving country. We tolerate & even incourage all religions here. But, as the Japanese found out in WWII, you don’t want to piss us off. Since 9/11 I have seen a dramatic increase of anti muslim sentiment here. And when I see it I try to make these ill informed people see that it isn’t a religion that is attacking us. But a qroup of radical extremists who have their own agenda. But what disappoints me the most is I don’t see many muslems doing the same thing & condeming attacks on innocent people.
This seems off base to me. There plenty if other (more important) reasons to disagree with this U.S. administration than this speculation.
The U.S. doesn’t make policy decision based on race. It’s always based on money/power and America wouldn’t pass on either of those just because of race.
Javi, I totally understand your point of view and I agree that any group that chooses the road of violence and not peace as it’s first option, taking a lot of innocent lives in the way is a terrorist group by all standards.
And the whole idea of the post was to show how ETA are called a seperatist group while Al Qaeda is called a terrorist organizaton, how there is some sort of double standard when it comes to dealing with terrorism from the US side.
If the people doing it claim to be muslims then it’s terrorism, otherwise it’s not really that big a problem for them.
And regarding what Uncle Jerry said about the US not taking a stand because ETA simply never attacked the US.
Well, I thought Bush wanted to fight world terrorism as a whole not just terrorism that has hit the US. Plus, How come he wants his allies to fight by his side when the US is hit but is not ready to fight along their sides when they are hit?
As for muslims not speaking out against the attacks on innocent lives, that is wrong, we muslims are the first to condemn any such attack whether it’s on our blogs, on our news sites and by our governments.
I agree with 8zero8 when he says that the US policy is based on money/power, it just so happens that this time that perfectly fits with anit-Islamism.