Spain and the aftermath

It is a well studied fact by now that terrorists do what they do because it works. Almost all the recent acts of suicide terrorism, say of the past 20 years, have been geared toward cooercing modern liberal democracies to do their bidding. The terrorists almost always win. Israel's giving back Gaza and Jericho initially followed suicide campaigns, same with the Tamils in Sri Lanka, and the Palestinians in Lebanon. Turkey alone was the sole victim of terrorism that did not did not make terretorial concessions to terrorists. (Spain of course was not a case of suicide terrorism though.)

Political terrorism seems interesting too. Once in a while a country doesn't get it and just lets the terrorists win. In Israel after Rabin was shot by right winger, Yigal Amir, the country voted for Netanyahu on the right. In Spain now when the country was bombed by terrorists, the country voted to capitulate to their demands by voting in the party that promised to give in. (Maybe they are just too close to France.)

Psychologically, one would predict that when faced with such death and grief the country would vote right. It is odd.