Terrorists spill blood on Spanish soil

If there was any doubt the war on terrorism is a worldwide war like none ever fought before, the events of the past week amply demonstrate its magnitude and ferocity.

Consider these points:

n The enemy, terrorists, are willing to strike anywhere and any time, and they are most likely to target innocent and defenseless civilians.

Of course, these are the "rules" by which terrorists play - at their most villainous on Sept. 11, 2001, in the United States and again on March 11, 2004, in Madrid, Spain.

For all the military action in Iraq, the front in the war on terrorism remains every airport, every train terminal, every gathering of human beings where a suicidal coward wants to kill and maim unarmed and unwary people.

n The attack in Spain may well have had the opposite effect its perpetrators intended.

It was apparently timed to affect Sunday elections in Spain, and it may have turned the tide against a conservative administration that had supported President Bush and the war in Iraq in favor of the anti-war Spanish Socialist Workers Party.

But by claiming responsibility for the Madrid attack, al-Qaida has confirmed it is the enemy in Iraq and around the world. Now is not the time for support for the war on terrorism to falter; the attacks, if anything, should renew the international commitment to hunt down and destroy terrorist cells.

n To that end, Pakistani paramilitary troops swept through a suspected terrorist compound near the Afghanistan border on Tuesday, killing 24 people described as al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives. American troops have stepped up their efforts in the region in recent weeks as well.

n Lest we forget, the Madrid bombings were not the worst attacks since Sept. 11, 2001. That distinction - so far - goes to Bali in October 2002, when 202 people died.

The al-Qaida terrorists have proved time and again that weak responses to their attacks only encourage them. The only finger of blame Spaniards should point is at the terrorists themselves, who have now attacked Spain on its own soil.