Terror Without Borders

tpfp's mourns the nearly 200 dead and over 1200 wounded in today's brutal bombings at three Madrid train stations. Initial suspicion focused on Basque separatists. But Al Qaeda claimed responsibility. And the bombings resemble those of radical Islam, not the Basques. Moreover, Madrid police found a van containing detonators--and an Arabic-language tape of Koranic verses.

A comment on Little Green Footballs, reprinted in Instapundit, says it best:

I am an American. A Californian to be exact. From nowhere special. I have never been to Spain. I may never go to Spain. I don't even speak Spanish. But today, today I am a Spaniard. We are all Spaniards.

Me siento profundamente triste acerca de las pérdidas de la gente de Madrid.

Hundreds dead, thousands wounded--for the crime of using mass transit? Liberals support mass transit. So why don't people "get it"? This war isn't cold--our civilization is fighting global terror, tyranny and theocracies. Legal/military journalist Phil Carter agrees:

[T]he "war on terrorism" is really much larger than what even America conceives of it. Liberal society, broadly defined, is at war with the forces of terror which seek to undermine the global civil society that prizes such things as liberty, equality, interdependence, free trade, self-determination, human rights, education, and science.

Inevitably some will blame America or George Bush. They are wrong. As BoiFromTroy notes (via Instapundit), "the only people in the world who believe that the liberation of Iraq was George Bush's unilateral action are the people who seek to replace him in the Oval Office."

Muslim extremists aren't targeting conservatives or Republicans. They don't just hate Jews--I doubt many of today's victims were Jewish. Neither electing Kerry nor surrendering Jerusalem will produce peace. Radical Islam doesn't spare Unitarians or atheists.

This isn't about history, land or religion. As Mark Steyn writes, it's about freedom:

"We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you." And by "you", they mean not just arrogant Texan cowboys, but any pluralist society - whether a relaxed tourist resort like Bali or a modern Muslim nation like Turkey or - come to that, one day down the road - a cynical swamp of appeasement like France.

If you value freedom, it's your fight too. No matter where you live; no matter what your politics.

Western Civ.--love it, defend it. Or lose it.