The death toll in the Madrid bombings is now up to 200 people. Sophisticates think it's tacky to call such actions "evil," but I don't know what other term applies. If wantonly slaughtering innocent people isn't evil, what is?
My friend Xavier Lewis writes from Brussels:
Demonstrations took place across Europe to express sympathy for the
victims and anger at the perpetrators.
We had one in Brussels, attended by several thousand Spaniards and non
Spaniards like me nothwithstanding the cold and rain. I took a few not
very good photo.
The husband of a lawyer I know in Madrid is a surgeon. According to him
the injuries were ghastly.
A couple of details of the attacks emphasize their callousness (if need
be). The train stations targeted bring into the city people from
working class suburbs--there were lots immigrant workers on them. The
stations also serve a line to a big university town-- hundreds of
students were making their way to classes. And next to one of the
stations is a large school. Hence the high number of children and young
people among the victims.
A controversy is raging as to whether ETA or Al Quaeda is responsible.
Frankly it does not really matter to the rest of us who did it. Our
sympathy for the victims remains the same and it is wrong to do it
regardless.
The press is working itself up about it, though. If it was Al Quaeda,
the press seems to think it was revenge on Spain for supporting the US
in Iraq. But Sept 11, 2001 was not revenge on the US for its role in
toppling Saddam was it?
Wired News has an interesting piece on the massive online response to the bombings.
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