"Madrid" Is Spanish For "Democracy":
George Bush and Tony Blair must have gotten the servants to clean their undies yesterday after the results of the election in Spain became a clear rebuke to the war in Iraq. With the Socialist party whipping ass, the new Prime Minister Zapatero says he'll get Spanish troops out of Iraq in July if the U.N. doesn't take it over. And he says, in essence, Iraq is bullshit - let's fight the terrorists. Think about this for a second here: three days after a massive terrorist attack, Spain held national elections. Compare that with the much-quoted opinion of former General Tommy Franks, who claimed in a couple of months ago in that bastion of political argument, Cigar Afficionado magazine (or, as the Rude Pundit prefers to call it, "Gee, I love sucking cocks, but I don't wanna seem gay, so I'll suck, suck this big ass stogie instead" magazine), that if a WMD attack were to occur, we might suspend the Constitution here in the U.S.

Already, the story of Spain is being spun in this way: Al-Qaeda scared Spain into running from Iraq with its tail between its legs, bitch-slapping them with the bombings, and all those fucking paella-eating, sangria-sippin' Spaniards punked out and turned yellow. CNN's American Morning Question of the Day was "Do Spain's election results mean the terrorists are winning?" Jack Cafferty, who always looks like he has to burp and fart at the same time, read the e-mails, many of which agreed with the leading question: Yep, if you exercise your democratic rights to get rid of a government who acted against the interests of the majority of the people, you are assisting the terrorists. USA Today tries to have it both ways in this editorial. Watch the way this plays out. Chances are what we'll hear is that the Spanish people were runnin' scared, like from bulls in Pamplona, and that we Uhmerkans would rally around our leaders in case of another attack, and that, horror of horros, Georgie boy would be guaranteed four more unfettered years tp inflict gloom, violence, and poverty.

But maybe, just maybe, we can spin it this way: Madrid showed what a farce the war on terror is at this point. The well-worn question is what would have happened if we used those billions of dollars to actually go after, well, terrorists. And the Spanish people know this. They opposed us. They opposed the war. And when it came home, they decided, after a stunning show of national unity in the 2 million Spaniard march, to show that democracy means that leaders have to answer for their actions. And if you behave like a crazed megalomaniac with no concern for the will of the people, then the people have a right to dump said megalomaniac on the street. The voters of Spain only had a couple of days to process what happened to them - no time for real spin to be done. And they opted out. And if you hear members of our government decry the Spanish elections, then you will know for sure that they regard democracy only as so much rabble-rousing against the elite, who know better than the people what's good for the people.

So maybe, just maybe what we can learn from Spain is that democracy can work. And bombs are the inverse of peace, and both are issues for the electorate to continue. If you're gonna run an election on how safe you make a people and the world, don't be surprised when reality bites you in the ass.