A common front

The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee

In [the recent] parliamentary elections Spain's citizens ousted the right-of-center government, widely seen as punishment for backing the United States in Iraq. Now, the incoming Socialist prime minister says he will remove Spain's 1,300 troops from Iraq unless the United Nations assumes control there.

... But whether Spanish troops leave Iraq or not, the war on terror continues. ... But will U.S.-European cooperation also intensify? Huge majorities across Europe strongly oppose the U.S. role in Iraq. ... Many Europeans see the terrorist threat as greatest in countries most closely linked to U.S. policy, and the terrorists' strategy is to use terror to drive a wedge between America and its allies. To some extent it seems to have worked in Spain.

... All leaders -- in Europe, America and elsewhere -- understand the need to combat terrorism unrelentingly. But Europe and America have differing views of how best to do that.

... No matter how hard the West tries to understand and accommodate the Islamic world, the terrorists will not relent. And the vote in Spain served the terrorist cause, even though that surely was not what Spanish voters had in mind.