(via Virginia Postrel)  Spanish investigators have been producing the detailed backstory to the Atocha train boming in Madrid earlier this year -

One of the most sobering pieces of information to come out of the investigation of the March 11th bombings is that the planning for the attacks may have begun nearly a year before 9/11. In October, 2000, several of the suspects met in Istanbul with Amer Azizi, who had taken the nom de guerre Othman Al Andalusi—Othman of Al Andalus. Azizi later gave the conspirators permission to act in the name of Al Qaeda, although it is unclear whether he authorized money or other assistance—or, indeed, whether Al Qaeda had much support to offer. In June, Italian police released a surveillance tape of one of the alleged planners of the train bombings, an Egyptian housepainter named Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, who said that the operation “took me two and a half years.” Ahmed had served as an explosives expert in the Egyptian Army. It appears that some kind of attack would have happened even if Spain had not joined the Coalition—or if the invasion of Iraq had never occurred.

“The real problem of Spain for Al Qaeda is that we are a neighbor of Arab countries—Morocco and Algeria—and we are a model of economy, democracy, and secularism,” Florentino Portero, a political analyst at the Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos, in Madrid, told me. “We support the transformation and Westernization of the Middle East. We defend the transition of Morocco from a monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. We are allies of the enemies of Al Qaeda in the Arab world. This point is not clearly understood by the Spanish people. We are a menace to Al Qaeda just because of who we are.”

The Jihadi's decision to massacre had nothing to do with Spain's support for Iraqi intervention.  At best, merely the timing was influenced by proximate issues (for ex., the opportunity to influence elections) - the event was inevitable.  As Florentino Portero notes, the real source of discord are the bedrock Western principles of Liberal Democracy and Capitalism rather than any singular policy which can be rescinded by simple administrative fiat.  Spain was faulted by Al Qaeda for the apparently dubious act of trying to extend these gifts to it's neighbor to the South.

Unfortunately, it's easier for many to believe that Bush and, to a lesser extent, Aznar were the cause of the bombs rather than a sworn, mortal enemy.  I think they can wrap their arms somewhat around a mortal enemy they create (e.g. Bush) but can't internalize that despite all of their Social Democratic / Kantian Good Intentions there are individuals who also create that mortal enemy in them.

Without this central recognition, as Belmont Club eloquently notes, these individuals simply can't fathom that some bombs (dropped by US bombers on Jihadi's) are "better" than others -

there is a reluctance to acknowledge that these things exist at all -- religious wars, death cults, dysfunctional societies, biological weapons in the hands of certified maniacs, blackmarkets in nuclear weapons -- beyond being film subjects; because to do so would imply having to do ugly things to solve them.

This inverted moral world blames the cop for the crime and - if flames could somehow be given victim status - would likely blame the fireman for the inferno.  This need to blame the proximate factor rather than the ultimate factor is something that Arnold Kling describes as Hating the Solution -

..Churchill found .. that when a group of leaders is confronted with a problem that makes them uneasy, they take out their frustration on those who suggest ways of dealing with the problem. Discomfort with a problem leads many people to develop a passionate hatred for the solution.

..A couple years back, Steven Hayward wrote,

Churchill's central idea or insight was that the distinction between liberty and tyranny, between civilization and barbarism, is real and substantial...

The necessary ferocity of warfare represents a departure from the normal conditions and inclinations of democratic civilization, while it represents the normal condition of barbaric nations and peoples. Barbarism may be regarded, in a nutshell, as lacking in any reasoned principle of justice or progress or moderation.

The left is unable to see that when civilization is confronted by barbarity that we must fight back. Hating the solution, they insist that "war is not the answer."

Substitute "Aznar" or ultimately "Bush" for "War" and you tap into much of the Spanish zeitgeist around Atocha.  I think a similar zeitgeist has captures the BDS-sufferers who are convinced that the current terror alert is actually some covert election PR ploy - Spain was in planning since 2000, 9/11 since at least 1996, and now this for at least 3 years.   Jeff Jarvis writes -

Can't have it both ways, folks: Can't scream they they don't tell us what they know -- and then when they tell us what they know, it's not good enough for you. It's what they know. Can't scream that they're not connecting the dots and when they connect some, you scream because you don't like the picture it draws.

Once again, these folks have an easier time hating Bush & a Republican administration than hating Al Qaeda. Perhaps we should just be forced to watch Nick Berg a couple more times to remind us of just what exactly we're up against.

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