Let me tell you a story from Spain. A country betrayed, used and despised by the US in the worst of the ways.
Madrid, Spain. March 11th 2004. Al Qaeda bombed a couple of trains when they were leaving Atocha, the city’s main train station, as well as two more stations, around 7:30 a.m of an apparently random Thursday, when they were packed with travelers and ordinary citizens who were just going to work, school or college. 10 bombs simultaneously exploded in 4 different trains. 192 people died and around 2000 people were injured. The worst terrorist attack ever performed in European soil (well, the worst after Lockerbie ). Our 9/11.
WARNING: SENSITIVE IMAGES
The attack was a direct response of Al Qaeda for the Spanish intervention in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Bin Laden directly targeted Spain for backing the US multiple times and the Spanish secret services were under alert. Both wars took place as a result of 9/11. The US targeted Afghanistan and Iraq as the “axis of evil” (amongst others) and accused them both of hosting Bin Laden and those terrorists who perpetrated 9/11. Spain responded and was one of the first countries that sent troops and military personnel and support to fight hand in hand with the Americans. Our “ally” needed help and we just were there to help “a friend”.
Less than one year before March 11, on May 23rd 2003, another terrible black day happened. The flight 4230 from Ukrainian-Mediterranean Airlines (UMA) crashed in Trabzon (Turkey). All the 75 passengers died. 62 of those passengers were Spanish soldiers coming back from Afghanistan to Spain. They were part of the Spanish contingent that was deployed there to back the US in its war to capture Bin Laden.
SENSITIVE IMAGES AGAIN:
We went to Afghanistan. We went to Iraq. And then March 11 took place. And all what we got from the US Government, apart from a general condolence, was a rebuke from Bush administration for “pulling out” and leaving Iraq. We were accused of giving “false comfort to terrorists” (US chides Spain for Iraq pull-out). We were told that our decision was “regrettable” (Bush Criticizes Spain Pullout From Iraq.
113 Spanish soldiers died between both Iraq and Afghanistan missions. 192 civilians died in Madrid in such a fatal day. 305 people who died as a direct consequence of the Spanish military support to the US in response of 9/11. Those soldiers who died in the plane crash would have never died had they not been deployed in Afghanistan. Those 192 civilians would have never died if Spain had never decided to respond to the US call… And the US Administration has the b*lls to say that we “must take care of our own security “!!! We were there because the US asked for our cooperation!! Those people died literally for the American interests, for YOUR COUNTRY (and for the ridiculous idea that by backing the US we were “fighting for the West” as if the US were representative of Western Values…).
I was quite young when March 11 happened and I remember it so vividly. There was a general shock and the whole country was paralyzed. Even in the school we could not have normal classes for days. I used to live near Madrid and most of our parents took those trains on a daily basis to go working. It took a lot of time to process all of that. Plus, it took place just days before the general elections, so all kind of theories and a state of paranoia crossed the country. Soldiers dying on a mission is something most people can understand. Hundreds of innocent civilians dying for a war neither them nor anyone in the country had nothing to do with, was and is still difficult to take.
Massive protests were carried out around the country to ask for Spanish withdrawal from Iraq when we knew why that happened and who was behind these attacks. We did not understand why we had to fight a war in a far flung place where we did not have anything to do. Yet, we fought with our ally, we send our troops to die (like in Latifiya Ambush, Iraq where a contingent of 7 Spanish Observers was killed), and we even paid the consequences here in our own soil and, instead, we got nothing but a reprimand…
The Yak-42 accident (plane crash) was the first alert call, but the terrorist attacks on March 11 (or all we knew years later) were the biggest turning point in recent years in Spain regarding our perception and opinion of our dear and beloved “ally”. Years later, when it was discovered that Iraq’s intervention was based on false statements and propaganda, most of us also learned that not only our people died for nothing, but that we also were used and manipulated. No wonder why Spain is among the European countries with the lowest perception rates towards the US…
Will we fight again with the US? I cannot decide myself any of that, but I’m pretty sure most of us here in Spain are actually and profoundly against giving any kind of support to the US ever again. Trump is just the last drop of a glass that was already on the brink of overflowing. The issue has been wandering around for a long time, way before the current US Administration, it would be wrong and unfair to put all the blame on Trump, he just made it evident. Or I personally really hope so. We need to see things as they are (as I think here we all understood crystal clear that those wars never really wanted to “restore democracy “, so the idea of ever taking part in something similar again it’s actually a difficult argument to sell among the Spanish people).
I don’t hate ordinary US Citizens, I indeed have friends from the US and I cannot blame them from what their rulers say or do (as I am not responsible for what my government says or do). Indeed, what angers me the most is that we contributed to the destabilization of a country and probably caused more harm than good. Both for Iraqi people and clearly also for us. And we did it all for a country that could not care less about none of us… At this point it is just clear that the interests of the US and the interests of my country are completely different and it is also obvious that even when we decide to put them at risk, to even put Spanish lives at stake, instead of a “thanks for your service “ we are going to receive a stab in the back. The moral of the story for us here in Spain is: never trust the US.