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oinrocinu · Joined: 18 Dec 2003 Posts: 76 Location: Barcelona, Spain

Hi!. I'm Spanish and I would like to know if you have heard about the bomb attack in Madrid (Sapin) that had happened today and what do you think about it. Do you think that this attack is similar to 11-S?

And just one thing: CNN calls ETA just a "separatist group" and not a "terrorist group"... Why? What's the difference?
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pugachevV · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 2295

CNN is fondly referred to by those of us who do not like it as the Communist News Network. It always delivers news with a left wing slant.
ETA is a terrorist group obviously.
Today though, it is said that a group affiliated with Al Quaida is responsible for this attack and ETA is denying it had anything to do with it.

oinrocinu · Joined: 18 Dec 2003 Posts: 76 Location: Barcelona, Spain

Yes, well, there are a lot of news now, we will go to a demonstration today and we don't know who is the guilty. We only want to shout in the street (in Madrid, in Barcelona and in every city and village) and we will go to vote next Sunday. Or this is what I hope. I would like to now who has made it... All of them were workers who were going to their jobs at 7am. One of my cousin was in this train 5 minutes before the attack.

But, really, I don't know what I prefer (ETA or Al Qaeda)...
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Anxious Heart · Joined: 02 Dec 2003 Posts: 91

asterix · Joined: 26 Jan 2003 Posts: 1654

What possible good reason could there be to murder 200 innocent people on their way to work?
The people who do this kind of thing are psychopaths.

Diana · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 494 Location: Guam, USA

I agree with Asterix. There is no justification or good reason to kill innocent people. I would rather go after the guilty ones who are responsible for the attack and put them behind bars.

Anxious Heart · Joined: 02 Dec 2003 Posts: 91

Diana · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 494 Location: Guam, USA

And what social system would that be? From the latest report, it seems that Al-Queda is most likely responsible for the attacks. In fact, ETA has come out and said they are not responsible, while Al-Queda is claiming responsibility. What exactly does Al-Queda want? Do they have a political agenda? Are the terrorists of Al-Queda desperately poor? The last I heard Bin Laden was a billionaire. And the 19 terrorists who committed the atrocity of September 11th were also spending thousands of dollars in flight school.

Anxious Heart · Joined: 02 Dec 2003 Posts: 91

... poverty isn't the only problem in this society, is it?
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"An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind." Mahatma Gandhi

oinrocinu · Joined: 18 Dec 2003 Posts: 76 Location: Barcelona, Spain

Hi!. Well, I don't know how many information do you have about the attack but I've been watching TV since March 11th. Now, we know that Al Queda made it. This doesn't make that people in ETA are angels but, now, we know the truth. And Anxi, we only wanted to know the guity because I wanted to know the reasons (you can't know the reasons if you don't know the guilty) and we had elections yestarday: many people have changed theirs votes because we know that this attack could have been avoided. There have been many mistakes with Aznar's Government but the Iraq war was the worse.

And yes, I would like to know the reason. They say that we have killed their families and their kill us. I don't know if this is a religous problem, a social problem, a economical problem or all of them. Zapatero (the new president) has promised changes and I hope that these changes work.

L.
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kenschindler · Joined: 11 Mar 2004 Posts: 14

Oh, what a terrible day. Crying or Very sad

Diana · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 494 Location: Guam, USA

LucentShade · Joined: 30 Dec 2003 Posts: 542 Location: Nebraska, USA

I teach Spanish at a university here, and quite a few of the other teachers are from Spain (or Latin America, I'm one of the few English native speakers included for affirmative-action reasons Laughing

). So, lots of people in the department were really shaken up, and I was worried along with them about their family and friends in Madrid. I'm just wondering who is going to be next. Will it be the US itself, or another member of the "infidel occupying imperialists" ?

oinrocinu · Joined: 18 Dec 2003 Posts: 76 Location: Barcelona, Spain

We can ask for the reasons of these kinds of attacks but, in some sense, we have to learn something of them. I would like to write down a bigger part of the Machado's poem (and Serrat's song) that LucentShade has as signature:

Al andar se hace camino
y al volver la vista atr�s
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante, no hay camino
sino estelas sobre el mar.
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Diana · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 494 Location: Guam, USA

I would think that the reason was already obvious since 1993 when Osama Bin Laden kept complaining about the "infidels" in Saudi Arabia. He even criticized the Saudi government for giving the "infidels" permission to stay on the land of the two sacred mosques just to keep an eye on Saddam Hussein. Afterwards, the Saudi government then kicked Bin Laden out of his homeland and stripped him of his Saudi citizenship, which only enraged him.

Bin Laden believes that only muslims are worthy enough to step on the sacred land of Saudi Arabia. All non-muslims are seen as "infidels" in Bin Laden's eyes. So, what exactly do you think is his main problem?