Den Beste on Spain

Steve Den Beste sums it up beautifully. I present his post in its entirety:

The people of Spain marched in the streets on Friday.

Then they crawled on their knees into their voting booths on Sunday.

He has more to say in this followup post:

I confess I had entertained hope. I had hoped that they might realize that the groups which planned this attack are not interested in participating in international conferences – except, perhaps, by contributing explosive devices to them. When the people of Spain marched on Friday, I had hoped they felt the kind of steel resolve towards their enemies that most Americans felt after 9/11, a cold determination to make their enemies rue the day. When the Socialists got elected, I had hoped that their new Prime Minister designate, who had previously promised to disengage Spain from the coalition, might decide that the situation had changed and that his previous promise could no longer be fulfilled.

I guess I expected too much.

...

After 9/11, there was an outpouring of sympathy from Europe for the US. Most of that sympathy was, shall we say, magnanimous condescension. "See? This is what you get for being unilateral and for not shafting the Israelis. But now it's gotten serious, and it should be clear to you dumb cowboys that we Europeans were really right all along. We thus graciously hold out our hands to you: we will be most happy to have you realize the error of your ways, apologize, make amends, and to join us in postmodern bliss where all disagreements can be solved with diplomacy and bribery."

After about three weeks, once it became abundantly clear that Americans weren't asking themselves why they were hated, but rather intended to go out and find and kill all those involved in the attack, the sympathy largely dissipated and the criticism and carping began. It's never let up since.

Beginning on Friday, there was a similar outpouring of sympathy from Europe addressed to Spain. But unlike the stupid Americans, the Spanish understood their part in the morality play and didn't blow their lines: they repudiated their previous policy and changed sides. Spain will now align with the French in opposition to the US.