Plenty of Bombs to Go Around

Christopher Hitchens makes the same points found on this and many other blogs -- that appeasement breeds additional attrocities -- but he does so with more skill and a sharper edge than most.

On the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal ($), meanwhile, Amir Taheri examines the possibility that the Madrid bombing was a coordinated attack involving both al Qaeda and ETA. I heard that possited Monday morning but little has been said about it since. Taheri concludes:

"An objective alliance of radical groups, from the extreme left to the Islamists, is already in place in many countries. This alliance has organized numerous marches opposing the liberation of Afghanistan and Iraq, and conducts a vigorous campaign against any attempt at 'imposing' democracy on any other Muslim country. The core of this alliance's ideology consists of an acute form of anti-Americanism which assumes that the U.S. represents evil in a Manichean view of the world. The truth is that there is no good terrorism and that the current European wave of anti-Americanism cannot but encourage those who wish to impose their will on the world through terror. Whether or not they actually joined forces to plan and execute the Madrid attacks, ETA and al Qaeda remain objective political allies."

Toss in the anti-war far right in America and you've got an alliance that, for all its intellectual schizophrenia, hates our freedom to reject its mad schemes.