Spain
I’m very sorry for all the murdered Spaniards and their families, and I hope the new government there will do everything in their power to care for them and to ensure no such event recurs. I hope the French and the Germans, among others, take preventive measures and that the kind of cooperation called for in the U.S. creation of a Department of Homeland Security, intended to ensure that intelligence and law enforcement were aligned and communicating (but also that it should be more effective than we’ve seen so far), and that such efforts can be accomplished internationally, because we’re all on the list, and we need to do something about it. The second war on Iraq is not an example of the best method for running a war on terrorism. The Cold War is probably the most useful model in ending this threat, but without any of the self-interested back-biting and shameful illegalities that went on during that period. Non-state organizations cannot be fought effectively with the methods of conventional warfare. The tools can be used – helicopters, cruise missiles, etc. – but they need to be employed differently than we’ve seen in Iraq. Afghanistan was an exception to this, as the government there elected to be entirely complicit in the goals of the new international terrorism; potentially other nations would fall into this error, in which case the option for open war remains. Nevertheless, we face a situation more akin to that of the days of pirates and the need for the international community to enforce peace in the shipping lanes: small bands of rogues who need to be tracked and stopped wherever they can be found. This can be done without having to resort to extralegal methods, although I won’t cry over any missed opportunities to put terrorists in a court of law. Countries like Pakistan, who claim to be allies and yet are acting against international interests, or Syria, who implausibly deny supporting terrorists, these are nations that need to be brought into compliance with the goals of a broader community than they presently serve (themselves). We have methods for doing this that were effective in the Cold War, too, such as international sanctions on the one hand and foreign aid on the other. There is much to give and to take away without having to force coups or drop bombs. We find ourselves at a kind of evolutionary crossroads: Neanderthal set against Cro Magnon yet again. The new species won because of its intelligence. It’s time to use ours.