With the Madrid terror attacks, terrorism is now proving to be a risky political spin game. It was risky for Spain's outgoing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and it is risky for George W. Bush but that hasn't stopped the Bushies from continuing their spin on terrorism...
Aznar tried to spin the Madrid attacks as the deeds of a local separatist group when the facts leaned toward Muslim extremists. According to Spanish papers voters threw out the ruling party and elected the Socialists mainly because the people were misled by Aznar's government, that and the fact that most Spaniards didn't support the Iraq war. Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Spain's prime minister-elect campaigned on a platform to bring the Spanish troops home from Iraq. George W. Bush's reelection team is now trying to spin Zapatero's win as appeasement to terrorism. Spinning terrorism is dangerous but spinning terrorism is the one thing George W. Bush knows how to do. Bush has been spinning terrorism since the 9-11 attacks. Some of the Bush spins include: Saddam had something to do with 9-11, Saddam was trying to get nuclear components from Africa, Saddam and bin Laden worked together, Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and the capabilities to deliver them on the continental USA, that the world was safer with Saddam behind bars. None of the spin turned out to be true. Now Bush is trying to spin the Zapatero win as an appeasement to terrorism. Bush is the master of spinning terrorism, to some degree terrorism has been good to Bush; without terrorism Bush would be nothing more than a failed president. Terrorism lets Bush keep America distracted from his failed economic policies. Bush has to spin terrorism or he can't win reelection but it is a risky campaign tool, considering that Spanish voters threw out the incumbent party because they were misled. Will American voters now react the same way Spanish voters did by throwing out Bush for misleading them into a war?
Bush ran in 2000 on being a straight shooter, the facts prove he is anything but a straight shooter. After the 9-11 attack the Bush Administration withheld information on the quality of air in New York City misleading the public to think the air was safe and the same Bush Administration withheld the true accounting numbers to Congress for the recently passed Medicare legislation, misleading conservatives on the real cost. The Bush Administration misleads their own Republican Congress. If a Republican member of Congress can't trust their own Republican president, who can? That is why the Bush team is spinning the Zapatero win as an appeasement to terrorism, if they admit it was for misleading the Spanish public, Bush's own chances don't look good and that is without the economy and jobs factored in...
The Bush team will try and make the claim that electing John Kerry would also be an appeasement to terrorism. The reality is that Bush has already appeased the terrorists by taking the American troops out of Saudi Arabia; that is what 9-11 was all about; bin Laden wanted the American military out of the sacred lands of Mecca. It is easier for bin Laden to overthrow the Saudi Royal family if the U.S. is out of Saudi Arabia. The American troops were only there to oversee the flyovers of Iraq and now that Saddam is gone there are no more flyovers. Bush did what bin Laden wanted; he moved the troops out of Saudi Arabia. Unfortunately he moved them into Iraq with thousands more troops and National Guard units from the United States. Leave it to the empty Bush cranium to appease the terrorists and antagonize them at the same time...
Terrorists need a cause; by occupying Iraq, the terrorists have a new cause. The occupation also gives them countless recruits and the PR they needed in the Muslim world...
It is ironic that Bush spins the premise that opposing him appeases the terrorists when in fact George W. Bush is the best thing that has ever happened to terrorists. Terrorism is a risky political spin game but misleading the public is even riskier, just ask Spain's outgoing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar...
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