The sudden assertion of human criteria within a dehumanising framework of political manipulation can be like a flash of lightning illuminating a dark landscape
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after madrid: war, prevention, dialogue?After the devastating March 2004 terrorist attacks on Madrid, openDemocracy writers from Spain, Lebanon, Morocco, and Britain assess their impact on the national, European and global landscape. *One year later, see openDemocracy’s new debate on Democracy & Terrorism in collaboration with an international summit in Madrid on democratic responses to terrorism.
The Madrid massacre of 11 March 2004 was the prelude to the political defeat of Spain’s political right. Two years on, says Mariano Aguirre, it is deploying a conspiracy theory about 11-M as part of its comeback. Read the rest of this post...
Morocco matters. Its Islamist-secularist tensions, huge resource-pool of aspiring migrants to Europe, intimate relationship with Spain, and experience of terrorism place the North African country at the heart of current global concerns. In Tangiers, Ivan Briscoe discovers a link between its political frustrations and the longing of so many of its people for escape. Read the rest of this post...
In the election after the terrorist atrocity of 11 March, Spain’s people rallied against government lies and bad anti-terrorist policies. An American scholar in Madrid compares the American reaction to 9/11 and asks whether his compatriots can learn from the Spanish example. Read the rest of this post...
Terrorism is the defining issue of the post 9/11 world. It is also one of the most confusing and contested words in the political lexicon. The route to understanding, says Fred Halliday, is through making connections: between past and present, state and insurgent violence, nationalist and religious movements. The result is an illuminating survey of terrorism’s history, current impact, and possible future. Read the rest of this post...
The seizure of United States foreign policy by neo-conservatives made possible the Iraq war. The result has been a disaster for the international community. After the Madrid bombs, Spanish citizens sounded the alert. Will Americans follow? Read the rest of this post...
The shared horror and sympathy following the Madrid terrorist bombings reveal a transatlantic relationship alive but in need of unity against a common enemy, says John C. Hulsman of the Heritage Foundation. Read the rest of this post...
Moroccans in Spain were victims of the Madrid bombs and, it seems, also perpetrators. How will the relationship between the two states, equally ambiguous, be affected? Read the rest of this post...
The terrorist atrocities in Madrid on 11 March, and the national election three days later, raise hard questions for Spaniards and Europeans, for Muslims and world citizens. What should they – we – do? openDemocracy invited 100 people from twelve countries to discuss the meaning and implications of these events. Caspar Henderson summarises a quietly passionate discussion. Read the rest of this post...
openDemocracy responds to the 11 March bombings in Madrid with a swift, intelligent online discussion involving eight writers from six countries. Was the Spanish people's election of a new government an act of cowardice or a mighty democratic roar? What does Europe need to do, both to meet the danger and to include its Muslim communities? Read the rest of this post...
The proximity of the Madrid blasts and the electoral defeat of Spain’s ruling party has been interpreted as a victory for terrorism. For Ivan Briscoe in Madrid, this is a profound misunderstanding of what happened in Spain. Read the rest of this post...
The Spanish people responded to the Madrid massacre by voting in a government opposed to the “war on terror”. An act of surrender and dishonour, says Douglas Murray. Read the rest of this post...
Even if it is exonerated of responsibility for the pre-election Madrid massacre, the militant Basque group that has waged a thirty-six year struggle against the Spanish state faces a difficult future. Read the rest of this post...
The Madrid bombings have taught us a powerful lesson: the ‘war on terror’ plays into the hands of its enemies. Politicians must learn to be modest in the face of those who perpetrate “jihad”. Read the rest of this post...
The real challenge of terrorism is to the quality of Europe's democracy. A response fueled by unchecked power can become fuel for a global civil war. There is, there must be, a better way. Read the rest of this post...
The defeat of the ruling party in the Spanish elections three days after the attacks in Madrid on 11 March marks an extraordinary and unexpected turnaround. A founder of “El Pais”, Spain’s premier national newspaper, assesses the reasons for the government’s defeat and looks to the future of democracy in Europe. Read the rest of this post...
The implications of the "11-M" bombings go far beyond the Madrid carnage.
In the heart of Europe, coordinated security failed to detect the
coordination of terror. The impact on Washington’s wider war will be
substantial.
The attack in Madrid should not be looked at as only European, or even only political, but in the context of a human chain of being and responsibility. Read the rest of this post...
The death of 200 people in Spain’s worst-ever terrorist attack is a landmark in the country’s politics as well as its modern history. After three days of national mourning and the 14 March general elections, the new government will face the task of articulating a coherent political programme in a time of national trauma. Read the rest of this post...
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