Regardless of one's nationality, using your nose punching analogy, I look for the why's.

The terror attack intimidated the Spanish people, and on some level, either didn't trust the previous regime, or as mentioned in Iberian Notes, lack courage.

However, it does speak to the inability of Spain's security and police force to figure out where their susceptabilities lie.

Then, I'm looking for payback.

The biggest problem is that this is a huge victory for Islamic fascism. President Bush was right when he said in 2001 that they miscalculated when they hit us, i.e., they lost Afghanistan and Iraq.

Unfortunately, they came up smelling like roses in Spain. One can only hope that there's some negative unintended consequence for them, perhaps the investigators find a good piece of intelligence.

It's all that and so much worse: like you, I really have difficulty putting my reaction into words. Many more people will die because of this act of--to be most charitable--willful blindness.

I confess to being stunned. The French or the Germans reacting this way would not have surprised me remotely as much, but whatever has become of Spanish honor? To see a country choose surrender so quickly and easily that did not take freedom for granted, that lived under fascism within living memory, is horrifying beyond all capacity to express.

The Spanish know far more about war than we do; far more about dictatorship than we do -- theirs was a wise vote for peace.

And Annika, you know your bible too well to get away with the nose punching analogy.

Matthew 5:39 or Luke 6:29 is for both personal matters and transactions between states, imho.

Cheers!

A wise vote for peace?

Hugo, the islamists have stated that they intend to reclaim Spain as an Islamic state. They have declared war on Spain.

This is a foolish vote for "Peace in our time." Which turned out so well last time.

I don't think we should be holding our breath for a lot of direct action against the terrorists from the new Spanish government. As much as I don't like the idea of the U.S. as global sheriff, any action that emboldens terrorists is a threat to American security.

If this is the work of Al Quida - and it is certainly looking that way - then we need to step up direct operations against them. If we don't get the FULL cooperation of the Pakistan government they should be dealt with accordingly. Perhaps we could outsource THAT to India.

Regardless of why Spaniards voted in this way (certainly because they were against the war in Iraq to a large degree), and despite the fact that to the Spanish voter, this may well be the right choice, it stinks. It's bad for America, because there goes a European ally, and it's bad for Spain, because right now Al-Qaeda knows that all they have to do to dramatically influence Spanish politics in the future is to bomb a train station in Madrid in the week before the election. It boggles the mind that Aznar mishandled the bombing to such a degree, but as appalling as the cynical attempt to blame ETA was, this result is even worse.

The Spanish going tits up socialist isn't surprising. The Spanish aren't willing to fight anyone unless the apex of their enemy's military technology is a wooden spear tipped with a stone arrowhead.

Spain is just falling in line behind the rest of Europe. Duh. America can't count on any of them if you ask me. Didn't we learn that after September 11, 2001? We should have.

Terrorists won a great victory for their world-wide Islamic cause this weekend. Terrorism, it seems, works.

Gracias, Spain. You cowards. Enjoy your tapas while you can.

Thank God I'm an American.

The interpretation "Spaniards voted for the opposition so as to pacify the terrorists" seems too simplistic by far, I don't understand why it has so much support. Other elements surely include the perceived deception by Aznar, AFTER he had earlier governed against the majority of his people based on principle - you need to be seen as standing on a higher moral ground than the population to be able afford that, so if you then sin, you suddenly look pretty arrogant and ghastly. Or the fact that leftist voters who were apathic earlier due to the corruption of the socialists were now re-mobilized. I'm not saying voters are statistically rational, but the fact that they never fully are doesn't mean that analysis need not be comprehensive. Competition is good - let the Europeans try to find a better approach to fighting their own muslim terrorism than the George Bush approach of "A stranger punched my friend, so I beat up the unfriendly guy down the street who I never liked, never mind the resulting neighbourhood feud."

Do you think it's right to try to change a whole civilization? To impose your way of life on them, destroying thousands of years of tradition? And even if you do change them to be more like us, will that make them "good?"

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