The election results in Spain have David Brooks busily defecating into his typewriter again:

…reversing course in the wake of a terrorist attack is inexcusable. I don't care what the policy is. You do not give terrorists the chance to think that their methods work. You do not give them the chance to celebrate victories. When you do that, you make the world a more dangerous place, for others and probably for yourself.

And furthermore...

If a terrorist group attacked the U.S. three days before an election, does anyone doubt that the American electorate would rally behind the president or at least the most aggressively antiterror party?

By this clown's deranged reasoning, it is within the power of a single terrorist to give George Bush a second term: all he needs to do is blow something up and we'll all "rally behind the president". Yet, this doesn't qualify as appeasing terrorists?

As always, Matthew Yglesias provides a more informed perspective:

I think this relies on a very implausible model of al-Qaeda decision-making. Osama wasn't sitting around in a tent somewhere on March 12 seriously contemplating giving up the whole terrorism thing until the election returns showed him that terror works, thus incentivizing further strikes.

The real gist of Brook's Euro-bashing, however, is quite succinctly revealed in one of Matt's earlier posts:

The right would like to set up the following argument: If there are no attacks between now and the election, then Bush has defended us from terror and deserves re-election; if there is an attack between now and the election, then voting for Kerry would be appeasement.

Of course, the reality that the right continues to ignore is that the course of the Spanish government was quite different than the course preferred by its people. The "coalition" against Iraq was an illusion. Statesmen are bound by the duty of their office to consult the sentiment of their people, even if such sentiment runs in stark opposition to the will of the sitting U.S. President. If such statesmen fail to so consult, they will be removed.