E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

French describe Madrid bombing as a "benediction"
Hat tip AllahPundit
In Paris, where the Socialist victory was welcomed as the defeat of a prime minister who mocked the France of President Jacques Chirac - a radio commentator described the result on Monday as a "benediction" for the French and the construction of Europe - there was considerable official effort to avoid the appearance of approving of a situation that was being interpreted in some places in Europe as granting terrorists the effective right to intervene in the democratic process.

Dominique de Villepin, the foreign minister, even said, "It is important that terrorism doesn’t dictate the behavior of our countries." When he was asked in a radio interview whether the link between the attack and Aznar’s pro-American line meant that a France opposed to the Iraq war could assume it has a free pass on terrorism, Villepin replied, "No, I don’t think anyone is safe."

But Villepin also attacked the American role in Iraq as more than an error and rather a culpable fault. André Glucksmann, the polical essayist, who was one of the few French intellectuals to attack the Chirac line during the war and who has defended the ouster of Saddam Hussein on moral grounds, noted that Aznar’s party, despite its support of the Bush administration, had a lead in the polls until the attack. "In three days," he said, "the killers turned public opinion around. How can the murderers not come to the conclusion that they’re the ones who decide and that terrorism is stronger than democracy? ...
Posted by: ed 2004-03-17
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=28400