groundzeromadrid

Editorial of "The New York Times", Friday March 12, 2004, the day after Madrid's, Spain, terrorism attack.

"The New York times" is considered the best and most famous newspaper in the world.

The terrorist attacks in Madrid yesterday were a monstrous crime against innocent humanity. They were also a reminder that terrorism is a worldwide threat and that fighting it is not America's problem alone. Combating terrorism effectively requires the fullest possible international cooperation, especially in intelligence, law enforcement and the tracking of terrorist finances.

Most of the hard work will be far less dramatic than the successful military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. Indeed, each new terrorist act demonstrates that military action alone is not the solution. Terrorism cannot be eradicated simply by driving the Taliban out of Kabul or capturing Saddam Hussein.

The series of bombs in Madrid that killed nearly 200 people and injured more than 1,400 came three days before national elections. Whether the bombers came from the Basque terrorist group ETA, as the Spanish government initially presumed, Al Qaeda or elsewhere, comparisons to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are inevitable and appropriate. Neither Spain nor America stand alone.

The list of terrorist outrages around the world has been grimly lengthening since that Sept. 11. Fanatics have sown carnage in places like Bali, Mombassa, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Moscow, Jakarta, Casablanca, Riyadh and Istanbul. Europe has been a particular target for decades.

Britain and Northern Ireland have endured the bombings of the Irish Republican Army, French civilians have been killed by radical Algerian groups, and hundreds of Spaniards have been murdered by ETA. At a time like this, trans-Atlantic squabbling about the nature of the terrorist threat and how to fight it seems tragically misplaced.

Terrorism threatens all of us, everywhere, every morning. Terrorists respect no national boundaries, political systems, ideologies or religions. The fight against them must be just as multinational. We are all Madrilenos now.

If this Editorial is very good, it should go a step further: It is not with the conventional war material that we, Americans, and the rest of the world, are going to win and destroy the terrorists.

We have to concentrate on the forces of Espionage. Unfortunately we call espionage: "intelligence"! What a misnomer!

We have in U. S. A. NINE million Arabs. Yet, up until September 11, the FBI and CIA did not have ONE of their members that could speak Arabic!!!

The responsible authorities of our "Intelligence Department" are so naïve that they select our American spies from Americans that are born and raised in the Middle West, or the South, that speak English with a special accent, that can be recognized as Americans any place in the world! Instead of picking, or selecting "intelligence" elements that speak Arab fluently like natives, so they can intermingle in the Arabian countries without being noticed as spies!....

This is the very reason why those personalities in U. S. A. that want to make this country just one language, are terrible mistaken! The richness of U. S. A. lies on its variety of cultures and languages, that constitute the tremendous resource for our defense and progress as the leader in the world.

Until our leaders accept this truth the American Armed Forces and the American people will be learning world geography by getting involved in various wars, all over the world, by spilling American Blood on the beaches, mountains and cities in so many different countries. Everyone knows that in order to succeed in U. S. A. one has to know English very well. It is so obvious that the English language will always be the Mother Language of this country.

But trying to belittle the other languages and cultures that exist in this country is simply stupid and against the better defense of our great Nation!