A Tangled Web

The Friday Essay



THE MEANING OF EVIL.



There are some events which happen that so barbaric, so cruel, that they come to personify evil. Madrid 11th March is one of them. They have happened before and I fear they will happen again. Evil has always stalked this world. Think Bali, think 9/11, think Omagh, think Oxford Street Bus Station. These terrorist attacks vividly demonstrate how little value the perpetrators put on the sanctity of human life. They demonstrate for even the slowest learner precisely how barbaric terrorists are.



Consider for a moment what happened in Madrid. Some people decided to attack at morning rush hour. In typical terrorist cowardly style, they selected trains containing innocent and defenceless commuters. They placed the bombs in such a way as to maximise the loss of life. They gave no warnings. What sort of immoral monsters do something like this? The answer, which seems to be giving our liberal media a problem, is that terrorists are not like the rest of us. They do not put any value on the sanctity of human life, indeed the reverse is true. Whoever set out to cause mayhem in Madrid did so in the full confidence that they would make the railway tracks run with blood. Those who are so detached from their own humanity that they revel in death are the sort of people that compose the ranks of the terrorist legions.



The Spanish people have reacted in their normal brave and decent manner to this slaughter on the railway. They did not need any opinion formers to tell them what to do. Within hours of the events, posters were going up in Madrid with two words on them, “Terrorists – Cowards.” There will be mass demonstrations across Spain today defying the terrorists. I wonder how many of those self-appointed moral guardians of the “Stop the War” brigade will be marching in support of the Spanish people and their right to defy whoever carried out this atrocity? I think you know the answer. None.



There are two types of reaction to the Madrid horror. Liberals react by expressing their sympathy and then adding that we need to eradicate the root causes that make terrorists carry out such acts. Conservatives react by expressing their sympathy and then adding that we need to eradicate the terrorists. The Spanish Government, under Jose Maria Aznar, thankfully falls into the latter camp. Listening to the comments of the Spanish Interior Minister, the Spanish Foreign Minister, and the Spanish Prime Minister, one is struck by their consistent refusal to indulge in the moral equivocation of the liberal left, they were clear it was ETA that carried out the bombings and they were determined that the guilty would be hunted down like the animals they are and brought to justice.



Contrary to media speculation it does not matter if Al Qu’eda or ETA was responsible. Almost 200 people are still dead, thousands are still injured. Families have been devastated. Terrorism is terrorism and the evil is made manifest here. What we need now is a concerted effort to hunt down the mass murderers concerned and ensure that they are made to pay for this crime.



11th March Madrid will now be entered into the annals of horror perpetrated by terrorists. After the grieving is done let us pray that the families of the bereaved find solace and comfort, Spain should ensure that it’s excellent security services, working in collaboration with other Governments, bear down remorselessly on the guilty parties. Spain is winning the battle against terrorism – but it will not be complete until every guilty terrorist is dragged from whatever hole the have buried themselves in and made to pay the price for their uinspeakable evil in Madrid.