sophiaserpentia | Time to dispell a myth.

Senior administration officials and counterterrorism experts view the coming months as a time to increase vigilance out of concern that Islamic militants may try to replicate the political success they had in Spain with coordinated pre-election train bombings.

Nearly 200 died in the March attack, and the prime minister's ruling Popular Party lost to a rival who promised a pullout of Spanish troops from Iraq.

from Ridge Warns of 'Credible' al-Qaida Plot

The Spanish Prime Minister lost that election not because the opposition favored withdrawing troops from Iraq, but because the Popular Party tried to claim the 3/11 attack was the work of the Basque separatist group ETA, and so twist it for its own political gain. They were caught in the lie, and were consequently voted out of office.

Even so, there are many who want you to believe, as Ann Coulter put it, that al Qaida won the Spanish election. They like to say that because the party who came into power was strongly opposed to the US invasion of Iraq and has moved to withdraw Spanish troops from the Coalition.