The Bali nightclub bombing was as serious to Australia (and of course, Bali and Indonesia) as 911 was to the US; it killed a proportionate number of Aussies as 911 did Americans.
The Madrid train bombings were as serious to Spaniards as 911 was to the US. It led to a change in the election there that the terrorists felt was a victory. Spain then announced that it would withdraw from Iraq. And then it DID. There's your pacification strategy. What was the terrorists response?
Seven months later, Radical Islamists are plotting attacks on Spain.
(
The suspects had been in contact with other individuals in Europe, the United States and Australia, the statement said.)
Pacification is not possible. This feel-good take on terrorism and how the terrorists think is at the root of the fundamental failure of half of the D party on foreign relations. Luckily John Kerry doesn't agree with it, and that's why I'll be voting for him in two weeks.