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Some of the material in this article originally appeared at March 11, 2004 Madrid attacks. See the page history of that article and the archives of that page's talk page for details.
The article claims:
- It was the first time a government that backed the Iraq war has been voted out of office.
Was this the first election involving a government backing the Iraq war? Is this one government voted out of office out of many, or one out of one so far? Miguel 17:08, 2004 Mar 15 (UTC)
Pamplona death
Is the Pamplona baker shot dead a pending edit or is there some reason to not include the case here?
I had to draw a direct relevance line somewhere. We are not writing a chronicle of everything that has happened in Spain this week. Adam 00:44, 16 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Passive voice
Following the attacks, initial suspicions focussed on the Basque armed separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna ("Basque Fatherland and Liberty") or ETA, although suggestions that the Islamist organisation al-Qaida was responsible were also immediately raised.
- Considering how politically important the question of blame seems to be, I think we really really must avoid the passive voice here. Who initially suspected ETA? Who suggested that al-Qaida was responsible? When? DanKeshet 07:40, Mar 16, 2004 (UTC)
I agree that this is an important question. But attributing these suggestions to individuals will not be easy, because my recollection is that both groups were immediately named as possible suspects by just about everbody, at least in the English-language media such as the BBC and CNN which I was following. Adam 08:42, 16 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- 'Mainstream media & government.' --Cantus 08:54, 16 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- This type of issue is at the heart of "NPOV: A second course" as opposed to NPOV 101 that newbies learn every day. At first glance it appears like the paragraph is failing the Wikipedia:Avoid weasel words test of writing a decent article. But then you think about it a bit more and realize to assign that opinion (implicitly, even) to one organisation by quoting just that organisation, you are marginalizing an opinion that is held by "just about everybody". In fact this sort of thing is covered by the "weasel words can be a legitmate rhetorical device to deliver widely-held opinions" clause of Wikipedia:Avoid weasel words. Anyway enough general pontificating, in this specific case, they are several (now former) government ministers to quote, as well as saying that news organisations agreed - Though it is quite shocking how little original thought goes on on some of these TV new programmes... I don't think the Casablanca bombings were mentioned by anyone until the guys got arrested, for example. Pete/Pcb21 (talk) 10:17, 16 Mar 2004 (UTC)
To be fair to the ministers (who are not ex-ministers yet, by the way) I think it is not unreasonable for ETA to be the first suspect for any bombing atrocity in Spain. Obviously they had strong political desire that this be so, but in the absence of any hard evidence in the first few hours it was a fair call. Adam
From the table on the right of the main page:
Bilbao (pop. 350,000) 300,000
Valencia (pop. 800,000) 400,000
I'm guessing the 2nd figure is the total number of estimated protestors, and if so, that's all well and good.
Seville (pop. 700,000) 700,000
straining credibility. Everyone attended the protest, including crippled grandmothers and newborn babies? Or did people come from surrounding areas?
Vigo (pop. 300,000) 400,000
Oviedo (pop. 203,000) 350,000
Cádiz (pop. 160,000) 350,000
More people attended than live in the town? People from surrounding areas went to the city to protest, rather than protesting at home? If so, fine, but I think it needs explanation. As it is, it strikes me as rather odd. Koyaanis Qatsi 10:27, 16 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- This is explained in the article:
- In some cities, turnout for the protests actually exceeded the city's population, due to inflows from surrounding regions.
- --Cantus 10:43, 16 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- Erm, I missed that. ^_^ Koyaanis Qatsi