This is a Washington Post article, written by Jefferson Morly on March 16, 2004, which sums up the various European opinions on the bombing of the Spanish trains and the reaction to these horrific events. I suppose the easy access to Western Europe, by train or car, from the Middle East has brought home the vulnerability of Western Europe.

Still, I am rather irritated that a Frog* (French Sociologist Emilio Lamo de Espinosa) should call President Bush "a cretin" and brag about how pro-Muslim the Western Europeans are. To quote him: "When the Americans declared war on terrorism, many of us thought they exaggerated. Many thought terrorism was not likely to occur on our premises, [inhabited by] peaceful and civilized Europeans who speak no evil of anybody, who dialogue, who are the first [to] send assistance and offer cooperation. We are pacifists, they are warmongers. . . . . Don't we defend the Palestinians? Are we not pro-Arab and anti-Israeli?"
(NOTE: This is a direct quote from the Washington Post article.)

I seem to recall that the "peaceful and civilized" French and Germans and Italians and Spanish etc. fought two World Wars in the 20th century, the "peaceful and civilized" Germans and the "peaceful and civilized" Spanish fought the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. The peaceful and civilized French got the US of A embroiled in both those World Wars and VietNam. I seem to recall that the US of A was isolationism and the "peaceful and civilized" Europeans were fairly efficient "warmongers". (I guess this is the curse
of having read histories or WW2 written by Brits and Europeans.). We rebuilt Europe after War two and helped rebuild Europe after War one. I don't recall reading of any European repayment of those debts incurred by our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents!

*It should be noted that I lived in France decades ago and like the French people in general. I'm just not fond of the ones who bash my elected officials. This is not a unilateral opinion; just bashing the arrogant S.O.B.s who presume to pass judgment on the citizens of the US of A!

I thought I'd "published" yesterday's blog but couldn't find it. I guess I just didn't hit the right buttons...

oh, well...

Rage from the "Scotsman Online"

I like to read "The Scotsman Online" because it is both amusing and had a more direct style that what you find in US newspapers. There was an interesting and angry editorial about the recent murders in Spain, written by Mr. Stewart Kirkpatrick. I agree with Mr. Kirkpatrick.

All I could say after reading this was "Amen!"

When the Twin Towers were plane bombed, I was shocked and angry. When the Pentagon was plane bombed and the first victim named was a Navy Petty Officer (an Aerographers Mate 1st class), I was quite shocked. It took me a couple of minutes to convince myself that I had left the Navy before this young man had enlisted; I took a certain amount of comfort in the realization that he could not have been one of my sailors (in the 1980s a was a Navy officer and had a number of Aerographer's mates working for me).

Somehow, I was even more angry about the Spanish train bombings since this was yet another example of innocent people dying so that fanatics could "claim credit" and fight against the "Crusaders". (Didn't the last Crusade end a couple of centuries before United States of America existed? At the time of the last Crusade, probably all of my ancestors in England, Scotland and northern Europe were peasants and had no say over the wars the "Nobility" started!) This seemed yet another senseless example of the worldwide madness...