Al Qaeda claims responsibility

From Fox News, Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the attack in Madrid.

Unfortunately, a free society like Spain must be lucky every time to prevent a terrorist attack, the bad guys only have to be lucky once.

We, the West are in a war, we just need to decide how we want to fight. I think Madrid was attacked for two reasons:

1. Spain is an active ally with the US in the War against terror.
2. Al Qaeda wasn't able to launch an attack in the US at this time.

Even though Spain has elections coming up, Al Qaeda would have to be stupid to think attacking now would make people more likely to elect those who will abandon the war on terror. If they believe this, they haven't bothered to look at Spanish history or history in general. Only those who think defeat is inevitable and think they can only hope the attackers will be merciful will cut and run. Most people will instead get angry and demand the government take the war to the enemy and give them no rest.

This attack may also have an effect on Old Europe (France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg), if the terrorists are attacking Spain, how long before they attack these other countries. Remember France has just banned the head scarf from school and the Muslim community is not happy about it. Germany and Netherlands are also looking at similar laws.

I can't say what Al Qaeda hoped to accomplish by this attack, but think like 9-11, it will come back to hurt them. Well I sure hope so anyway.