Madam, - Up to early last week, the ruling Partido Popular held a narrow lead in the Spanish polls. It is understandable however, that after the Madrid massacre which Al Qaeda claimed was (in part) retaliation for Spain's participation in the Iraq war, Spanish voters - 90 per cent of whom had opposed the war - swung against the PP and elected the avowedly anti-war Socialist Party.
What is diabolical, however, is the immediate announcement by the likely new prime minister, José Luis Zapatero, that he will withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq. Al-Qaeda murdered 200 innocent civilians and injured over 1,500 more. Its reward is to have reversed the probable outcome of an election and secured the retreat of an enemy. Mr Zapatero could have made no more overt act of appeasement in the face of terror, nor handed Al Qaeda a greater victory.
Thus has he further imperilled citizens of all democracies, for al-Qaeda will be greatly encouraged to try this more often. - Yours, etc.,
TONY ALLWRIGHT, Killiney, Dublin.
Madam, - Prime Minister Aznar ignored the will of his people and supported President Bush's war on terror. Now, the Spanish people cry out in vain: "Your war, our blood".
Our prime minister has likewise supported the "war on terror" against the will of his people. We took to the streets in vast numbers to plead with our Government but all to no avail. Such carnage as Madrid was foreseeable a year ago as a consequence of American terrorism.
We want our politicians to end support for this terrorism by closing Shannon Airport to American troops and withdrawing permission to use Irish air space. We will not be satisfied with a summit on security. The invasion of Iraq which has made the world a more dangerous place, was carried out in the name of security.
Please, politicians, stop playing games with innocent lives. Do not leave it to the day when Irish people will cry out in vain: "Your war, Our blood". - Yours, etc.,
ANITA T. CURTIS, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.
Madam, - Petra Schurenhoffer (March 16th) and others seem to have missed the point entirely.
If, after 9/11, Bush, Blair et al. had done nothing - had not launched the War on Terror, had not freed Afghans from the psychotic rule of the Taliban, had not done any of the things complained of by the anti-Americans and the peace faction - then Westerners would still die at the hands of the al-Qaeda-linked terror groups.
Civilians were killed by these groups before 9/11, in Kenya and Tanzania. Plans for other massacres of the innocent, at Strasbourg's Winter Market for example, had been prevented just in time.
Bin Laden and his slavering cohorts are not rational people, using terror and massacring people for some political goal. They just want to destroy us. Each time one of us votes in a free election or drinks alcohol to enjoy ourselves, every time a woman goes to work or sends her daughters to school, we are becoming "legitimate" targets for their violence.
Landing rights at Shannon, Spanish troops on Basran streets, overflights across airspace - these are secondary concerns to the madmen in our midst. We exist, therefore we are targets. No concession can ever change that.
We are at war. We did not choose to go to war as it was forced upon us, so we are already at a disadvantage. It was not forced upon us by the usual targets of the peace faction, it was declared by the terrorists. Fail to understand that and our cause is lost. - Yours, etc.,
DANIEL GOLDSMITH, Washington Street, Cork.
Madam, - Monday's three minutes' silence was a commendable show of collective sympathy for the Spanish people in their national grief, but the disturbing results of their general election on Sunday deprived it of the moral force it would have had otherwise.
Whoever the terrorists were who committed Thursday's bombing outrage, they must now be gloating that they succeeded in overturning the Government of a Western democracy. This has dire implications for us all. - Yours, etc.,
DESMOND McGIMPSEY, Brandon Grove, Bangor, Co Down.
Madam, - After enduring the horrific events in Madrid last week, the Spanish people deserve the greatest respect for reacting so positively at the polling stations to the terrorist attacks carried out by those from outside their borders and the lies, deception and misguided loyalties of those closer to home. - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL CULLEN, Albert Park, Sandycove, Co Dublin.