So you think that this will lead to Spain backing off on its support of the US?

THOSE VICTIMS ARE DEAD BECAUSE THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THE TERRORISTS WANTED.
Yes, thats the end of support: According to Zapatero, he is going to wait to June for things to get settled, and make the troups return.

And maybe thats what the terrorists wanted, yes, the fact Spain would end US support. But thats what 91% of the Spanish population wants too, and that explains who won the elections. If you think the general feeling of the people towards the US goverment is positive, you're preety wrong. In fact, the Spanish opinion tends to be quite opposite to US. But well, the goverment does whatever they want, at least the last one did. I hope this one is better...

...well, it WILL be better. It has to, it can't be worse. The repression and criminalization of the oposition in this last four years has been extreme, our goverment did whatever they wanted, giving no chance for dialogue at all, plus the extreme manipulation of public television, that lead the EU to denounce the president. Did you know even our king had to phone Aznar to tell him to stop lying about the Al Quaeda attack?

ETA denies any connection (and indeed, the 'formal' ETA probably had nothing to do with this) because it doesn't serve their interests.
ETA are terrorists, but even if they are still asassins, I am sure they would never do something not even as half as barbaric to what happened. ETA always warns before detonating a bomb so the police can take people out, yet sometimes they announce the explosion later than it is actually programmed, trying to kill one or two policemen. The other thing they do is to shoot people, determinate objectives, just plain dirty asassination.

However, no, even if they are dirty people, this mass murder is far away from their style. The only comparable thing was in 1993, in Hipercor, a bomb killed 20. Such attack lead to an interior conflict in the terrorist group, since most of them proclaimed such attack was against their philosophy because it was aimed at "innocents" (Well, I think all their victims are innocent, except for Carrero Blanco). So that made many members of the group to be kicked off. As you can see, it's not their style, they are horrible, yes, asassins, yes, but they would never get that far. And if they say they didn't do it, I'm inclined to believe them: ETA may be monsters, but they are not liars.

And anyone saying this happened because Spain supported the USA in its war on terrorism is a self-deluded impotent fool. It happened because Spain is a democratic, Christian, western nation. That's it. No other reasons beyond these ones exist.
Yes, of course, except that all the videos and letters from Al Quaeda refered to this attacks as a revenge for supporting US. Also, Spain is not a christian nation, according to the constitution, we are not religious. Also, the past goverment was Catholic (Lots of Opus Dei...*vomits*) but the new one is mainly formed by atheists and agnostics, and some moderate christians.

...And if Spain hadn't backed the invasion of Iraq, then the US would've punished them with trade restrictions and by denying them the right to administer humanitarian aid in post-war Iraq.
Or not. I can't understand how Aznar supported Bush when three million people in the street shouted "No to war". However, Chile, for example, opposed to war but did not get punished. The difference here is that Chile had no interests in Iraq, so they just said they thought there were other ways of solving the problem in Iraq and backed off, but without making a lot of noise. Same with Mexico, I believe. France and Germany, however, attempted to stop Bush, and thats what made Dubya pissed.

Hopefully we won't get the same situation that arose in the US after September 11, 2001, where numerous Muslims, Arabs and Sikhs became the targetes of hatred just for belonging to the "wrong" culture... suspicion and fear like that can easily tear a nation apart if it's not resovled quickly
Well, I'm afraid racism here exists since before the attacks. Did you know what our defense minister, Federico Trillo, said when leaving the microphone on? That he would send immigrant soldiers to Iraq, because if they were killed, people would not care so much. Yes, it is sad, but thats how things are going.

I also hate how the past goverment attempted to promote patriotism here. After all, the last goverment descended from those fascists in the dictatorship, and trust me, this ones are not too different, only they are more...uh...democratic (Meaning better make up). I think PP forgot Spain is not like USA, here we come from a fascist dictatorship that prosecuted anyone who didn't feel proud of the flag, here we HATE THE DAMN FLAG. Actually, most people that come from other countires can't understand it, but hell, Spain is a divided nation, we are not all "united under one flag under god" or whatever, we are all disgregated and tired of flags. Yet the goverment put a gigantic flag in Columbus Square and said they would do a little ceremony in the honor of the flag every month. Obviously, the public opinion, specially from Catalonia and Basque country, shouted against it and they had to suspend the ceremonies. Good thing, the first one (and only) was pathetic enough, with Trillo shouting "HAIL SPAIN, HAIL THE KING". God, our king was probably laughning his ass off. A friend from Madrid told me that gigantic flag was now hanging in half pole, and that it touched the floor. "Of course, the floor was all clean with dirt, dog sh¡t and drunk man puke and the flag had to come and litter it"- and those were my friend's words.

God, they should just know Spain will never be united, Spain has developed through history as different communities, we are different cultures and mentalities, even different languages. How do you expect to unite them all?

Please don't get around the swear filter. --Unne