I have seen for myself the effects of terrorism both in Britain and in Spain. I left Kings Cross station just 10 minutes before a bomb exploded and I also covered as a reporter the ETA bombings in Majorca on 1991 and the terrorist group's plot to kill King Juan Carlos in 1995. War was declared on terrorism last week but in Europe we have been fighting terrorism for as long as I can remember.
We are now facing a war on terrorism but is the IRA, ETA and all the other terror organisations included in President Bush's hit list? I don't think so. In Europe we are tired of terrorism. There have been many silent vigils in Majorca this year in memory of victims of the Basque terror group, ETA. A recent poll by the Spanish government said the thing most Spaniards most feared was terrorism. George Bush is calling, like his father, for a new-world order. Terrorism is the enemy. Well, let Tony Blair concentrate on trying to bring lasting peace to Northern Ireland, and let Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar concentrate on bringing ETA to the negotiating table.
Terrorism is not just about bin Laden it is about hundreds of other terror groups across the world. Britain and Spain have terrorism in common but how the two countries are dealing with it is completely different. Britain is trying to achieve lasting peace through dialogue while in Spain Aznar has left it to the police and the army. Let Spain and Britain contribute in their own way to fighting terrorism by trying to pacify terror groups in their own country. This I believe, is the biggest contribution Britain and Spain can make to the war on terrorism.