ETA's retro-terrorism

While campaigns organized violence, no matter how ineffectual should never be dismissed or ignored, there is something sort of quaint about Basque separatist groups ETA's latest campaign of terror, in honor of its fiftieth anniversary. Most recently, the group detonated three small bombs on the Spanish holiday island Majorca yeterday.

 

Thankfully no one was hurt, but police are currently investigating whether the attackers are still on the island or if the devices were set off by remote control. King Juan Carlos, currently vacationing in Spain, has this to say:

"That band of murderers and scoundrels will neither alter Spanish democratic life nor normality on the island."

This is a boilerplate response from a head of state to a terrorist attack, but in this case, his majesty is probably right. I don't mean to sound insensitive to the victims and the killing of two Civil Guard officers in an ETA bombing last month was indeed a tragedy, but realistically, the current level of violence is nothing that should upset the daily routine of the Spanish public.

In some sense, it's a degree to which times have changed since European radical groups like ETA, the IRA, and the Baader-Meinhoff faction were the face of international terrorism. 

The remnants of these nationalist and politically motivated groups -- who despite their appetite for destruction are still interested in preserving their own lives and those of innocent bystanders -- simply can't match the ability of religiously-motivated terrorists. The brutal terror of the 2004 Madrid train bombings rattled Spanish citizens and provoked more change in government policy than 50 years of ETA attacks.

Velupillai Prabakharan's great gift to humanity -- the suicide bombing -- also dramtically changed the equation of the impact terrorists could have, but requires a level of single-minded fanaticism that's beyond groups like ETA.

One could argue that this unwillingness to die for their cause or kill civilians makes groups like ETA more rational than groups like Al Qaeda or the Taliban. But as a long term strategy it actually makes much less sense. It's certainly not outside the realm of possibility that Taliban and al Qaeda attacks might force a U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq. Hezbollah and Hamas may never eliminate Israel but they've proven quite adept at provoking the Israeli state into actions that damage its standing abroad. The Madrid bombings can be considered a success in that they pushed Spain into pulling its troops out of Iraq.

Compared to these campaigns, ETA's goals seem unbelievably quixotic. Is there any possible way that attacks like Sunday's will ever lead to the formation of an independent Basque state? This is probably the reason why despite the fact that while 24 percent of Basques support independence, less than 1 percent now support ETA's methods. As one former member put it:

"Eta has not had the lucidity or courage to realise that times have changed," he told the El Pais newspaper recently. "I realised that violence achieves nothing, but others lacked the balls to admit it."

At this point, the motivations of ETA's irreconcilables are probably a better topic for psychological, rather than political analysis.

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