The Old Left and the New Fear

Davids MedienKritik has some cites from the German press about Zapatero's plans to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq. What makes it especially interesting is that the sources typically are left of center. Quote:

The strategy of the terror war speculates not without good reason on the moral impotence of western Europe. The announcement of designated Minister President Zapatero that he will pull Spanish troops out of Iraq can be celebrated by the assassins as an easy victory. Even if one would like to view the pull-out as justified by international law, it amounts to a capitulation in the present context that enjoys wide popularity. Post-heroic societies have only very little with which they can fight terror. Their governments fear nothing more than the return home of dead soldiers. They are incapable of being offensive. In times of danger, they retreat within themselves. They can bear no losses, have no mission, indeed, not even a consciousness that they have something to defend.

Wow - it's as if they're acknowledging that they are moral free riders. For as the famous line goes, "We sleep safely at night because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would harm us."