Spain is neither the beginning nor the end of the war with America, it is just another brick in the wall being built very carefully and with significant skill by whatever AQ now is.
The PSOE had already promised in the campaign to withdraw troops from Iraq. By voting out Aznar, for whatever reason, the Spanish already knew that their people were coming home. But the bombing was always going to happen because the point of revenge is that if you make my innocents suffer, then your innocents have to suffer, and you have to live long enough to know that it was your action that started the ball rolling.
Bush followed the game by attacking Iraq, the fact that Iraq was NOT implicated was a clear message that it is up to everyone else to keep America safe, because it doesn't matter who commits the crime, the revenge will be taken on anyone. AQ plays that game too.
AQ had planned to bomb Madrid for a long time, you don't pull an operation like that out of your hat. I suspect they assumed that Aznar would blame them and Spaniards would have the "Iraq war wrong" message reinforced. When he went instead straight to the ETA tack, they were forced to make it plain. What they got, thanks to the criminal mind of the Bush lovers, was a double whammy; not only the Iraq thing, but also the "Aznar makes political capital out of misery and death" thing.
Beware of the "Jewish Science" problem too.
The Nazis refused to use certain scientific knowledge because it had been discovered by Jews. Similarly the republicans will try to paint anyone whose decisions are parallel with AQ's as terrorists. But if a terroist eats lamb and drinks water, does that make everyone who does the same a terrorist? If teachers can be branded as terrorists for disagreeing with chimpy, everyone is fair game.
That's why the campaign has to hammer on Bush's credibility. Until anything he says is suspect. When he label someone a terrorist, the US has to think, automatically, probably Bush is lying again.
Voting for him just so he wont label you as a terrorist would be the acme of category confusion and abject cowardice. Doing the right thing for the wrong reasons is the least worst option, but doing the wrong thing for any reason at all is still the wrong thing and fear or cowardice just compounds it.
People keep saying that AQ wants people like Bushco in power, but that is true only up to a point. They are all just players in each others' show and AQ also need to show that they are global, operational (despite the claims) and that their enemies will be punished.
Bush has an election this year, so does Howard in Aus, Aznar was the first head on the block, that's all. The strategy may well be to sow enough FUD that it ramps up by itself as the elections approach. People will be terrified that they are next. Keep that up for a few months and all the Bush claims of the world being a safer place will ring very hollow indeed. If AQ can sucker punch the US, get it to respond with aggression then sucker punch it again while it is wound up tighter than an A string, it will be makin exactly the kinds of points that it needs. If it can show that those who behave badly on its terms get mauled, we can be sure that there will be less of such behaviour in the future, blusre and bravado notwithstanding.
Can AQ win by destroying the west? Actually yes; it can win by undermining a system that needs the confidence to leave the consequences till tomorrow. Take that away and we are in big trouble. These tactics are designed to do just that, to turn the unconscious civilisation in on itself.
Meanwhile, the Geopolitical winds are only beginning to shift in Spain if the Wapo is right.
The ruling party's loss brings bring to power a party that was deeply opposed to the U.S.-led war against Iraq and that has promised to withdraw Spain's 1.300 troops there, unless there is a new United Nations mandate. The Socialist Party leader, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has also promised to re-orient Spain's foreign policy, away from Aznar's strong embrace of the Bush administration and instead seek new friends from among Spain's anti-war European neighbors.
Bush can rant and rave all he likes, he has screwed the pooch six ways to Sunday and the US will be paying for him for the rest of my life for sure.