Bombings In Madrid

It seems safe at this point to claim that Al Qaida or a group linked to Al Qaida carried out the bombings in Madrid last week. The Spanish government still refuses to rule out ETA as suspects which given ETAs history isn't very surprising but still odd none the less. I'm certainly no expert in ETAs past behaviour but the bombings last week don't seem typical of ETA.

Regardless given all the announcements by Spanish authorities Islamic terror groups of some sort seem to be the main culprit. We have:

- Al Qaida videotape claiming responsibiltiy
- Three Morrocans and two Indians are in police custody
- A van was found near the scene of the bombing containing explosive caps and a cassette tape of Koranic verses

There is still talk that the bombings may have been co-ordinated by both ETA and Al Qaida but at the moment I haven't seen any indication or proof that this may be possible.

I just hope that the Spanish people learn the right lessons from the bombings. We in the West are all targets. Islamic terror groups could case less how much sympathy or support Westerns give to them or other Islamic causes. In their medival view of the world we are the enemy. No amount of sweet talk on our behalf will change that.

It troubles me too that anti-government protests are already occuring in Spain with people demanding to know who is responsible for the blasts. I know that the bombings were traumatic and may lead people to act unreasonably but the bombings only occured a few days ago. Are the protestors in these cases just anti-government? Are the protests politically motivated due to the elections?