Editorial:

Let the liars feel the backlash

The electoral defeat of the Aznar Spanish Government and the 
election of a Socialist Party government pledged to withdraw 
Spanish troops from Iraq has direct links to Australia, 
manifested most recently in the dispute between Prime Minister 
Howard and Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty.

The change of government in Spain is a direct result of that 
country's involvement in Iraq through the same lies and deception 
that have been used by the Australian Government. Following the 
terrorist bombings of commuter trains in Madrid the Aznar 
Government immediately blamed the Basque separatist movement ETA. 
This was a move calculated to win votes for Aznar and his 
colleagues and to dampen down the perception of the people that 
the bombings were a result of Spain's involvement in Iraq.

The people were not deceived and far from the Spanish elections 
being a victory for terrorism, as was being claimed by the 
warmongers, it is actually a great victory for Spanish democracy. 
The voice of the majority of the Spanish people, who were 
overwhelmingly opposed to Spain's participation in the occupation 
of Iraq, was heard in the election result.

It is because of the obvious connection between the ousted 
Spanish administration and the current Australian Government — 
support for the US war on Iraq — that the Howard Government is 
attempting to gag comment that would lead people to conclude that 
Australia's backing of for the war has made them a more likely 
target of a terrorist attack. If the Australian people also make 
the link, the Howard Government may also be thrown out when the 
Federal election comes around later this year.

Thus the Government has basically discredited the head of the 
Federal Police by accusing him of scaremongering when he stated 
that Australia was now a more likely terrorist target because of 
the Iraq war. Howard attempted to stand over Mick Keelty, to the 
point of forcing him to claim that he had been misquoted, which 
any reading of his remarks would show was not the case. Foreign 
Minister Alexander Downer even accused Keelty of giving aid to 
terrorists because of his statement.

In the Government's attempt to silence dissenting voices — even 
incidental ones such as Keelty — they argue that any opposition 
to the war in Iraq means support for terrorism and that to oppose 
the Government is to be unpatriotic.

Terrorism is a scourge and is a weapon of political reaction. For 
this reason the change of government in Spain is not a victory 
for terrorism but a defeat for terrorism. Terrorism will find it 
much harder to work in Spain following this election. Terrorism 
is not a weapon used by progressive political organisations or by 
national liberation movements who are fighting for freedom, for 
the sovereignty and independence of their country.

Nor did it emerge as a new political tactic only after the 
bombing of the World Trade Centre in New York. It has been used 
for hundreds of years by the colonialist powers, and in the past 
100 years by imperialism in its crusade to try and dominate the 
world.

The most powerful imperialist state in history, the USA, has 
sponsored terrorism to overthrow governments and assassinate 
political leaders. It props up the terrorist state of Israel and 
funds mercenaries in various parts of the world. Al-Qaida was 
itself created by the CIA and financed by the US.

The result of the latest terrorist act by the US is the slaughter 
of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis.

The attempted manipulation of the attacks in Madrid by the then 
incumbent conservative government to try to assist its return in 
the elections was rejected by people incensed that their demands 
were not only arrogantly dismissed by the government but that 
also they were lied to in the process. 

It is this backlash that the lying Howard Government fears as an 
election looms.