Stone Cold Pimpin'

What happened in Spain--the bombings, the outcry, the ousting of the government--has been quite incredible. From a horrific act of terror, the populace didn't rush to Big Brother, nor did the government get a chance to use the awful event to crush its citizens' civil liberties. It didn't get the chance. The public called Aznar on his lies and tossed him out.
The right-wing in this country may want to paint this as "handing the election to the terrorists," but of course they would. But what the example of Spain shows us is that you can mourn and rage against a cowardly terrorist act and criticize the government. Plus, you can turf them out on their ear for lying. The Spanish were never against going after terrorists--they were against this false war on Iraq. And if you don't listen to the will of the people...well...see ya.
This Alternet article by William Rivers Pitt say it all much more eloquently.

The second lining is this: When the bombs went off in Spain, that nation and the world faced a tipping point. The fear and horror could have compelled the Spanish people to support their government and its role in the farcical War on Terror. They could have allowed themselves to be swept up in hysteria and lined up behind leaders who have, thus far, done everything wrong. They did not do this. They did, in fact, overwhelmingly repudiate their government and its war. This came at a terrible cost in blood, but had they done otherwise, the precedent as witnessed and potentially followed by the world could have spiraled beyond even a semblance of control.

The third lining is this: The bombing took place on Thursday. Two days later, the people of Spain were battering down the doors of government offices demanding information, demanding truth. 'We cannot vote without knowing who are the assassins,' cried the protesters. 'The government is hiding information. They think we're idiots.' Emilio Jimenez Tomas of Madrid, in a comment given to the New York Times as he surveyed the wreckage left behind by the bombings, said, 'Look at this. This is an election and the government pretends that they don't know anything about who really did it. They've been lying to us and we won't know the real truth until after the election.'

Two days. That was all it took for the people of Spain to become impatient, to pressure their government for the truth. When they did not get it, they threw that government out on its ear. For America, a nation approaching the 1,000th day in which their government has not provided the truth of September 11th, this is a lesson to be taken deeply to heart.