/ kalebeul / 2005 / 08 / 19 / gracia fiestas /
There’s a not particularly curious parallelism between Spanish defence minister, José Bono, who believes it better for his soldiers to die than to kill, and who appears to enjoy thoroughly the publicity he obtains when the coffins come home, and Barcelona’s leaders, who, of course, love their police force, but decline to give it the resources or institutional backing that would enable it to avoid having the poo kicked out of it every August during Gracia’s neighbourhood parties.
Überpatriot Bono’s case is particularly strange: to reject the legitimacy of an army that is capable of winning wars is surely to reject the legitimacy of the state which it serves. Since a fair number of the Catalan politicians currently hanging onto power are anti-constitutionalist, their apparent rejection of a monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force seems more logical.
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