Teribus, I also said that in the wake of the bombings, Zapatero might decide to pull out Spanish troops with or without the UN resolution. According to the Australian reports freda is talking about, which are from today (mine is from yesterday), it is quite possible that Zapatero will make the (probably correct from a political standpoint) decision to pull the troops out fast, while the momentum from the election & the attacks is with him.

There are reports in today's Washington Post, of Zapatero's intentions to distance himself from Washington, and work on aligning Spain with the more progressive European governments, most notably France and Germany.

Which I believe is the right thing to do for Spain. This terrorist bombing wasn't just a message to Spain. This terrorist bombing was a message from terrorists to Europe. This is something that Europe needs to deal with at the EU level. I think this will mark the beginning of Britain being pushed to the margins in terms of European security. No one in Europe trusts the Blair government on security and terrorism issues right now.

While I think the argument can be made that terrorists will see this sort of attack prior to elections as a success for them, I really don't think so. Politics of security are much more complicated than that. I think the Spanish vote was really about the way the Aznar government tried to exploit the attack to their political advantage in the run up to the election, not about the Spanish people cowering in the face of terrorists, and being bombed into doing the will of Al Q.