[nathanbedford]

You are absolutely right, it could happen here. In fact, it could well happen here in November and that even without a terror attack, because, as it looks today, the American people are likely to put Kerry in charge and that would constitute a regime change largely brought about by the war on terrorism.

In the end though, the real loser in the events coming out of Madrid is Israel as more and more of Europe becomes confirmed in its long held view that the Palestine problem is the root cause of this war and the Europeans do not believe they have a dog in that fight. Indeed, they believe the USA was attacked because of our support for Israel. They do not indeed to die for that cause. Expect this view to gain currency and respectability.

[Steve_Seattle]

"it could happen here"

The al-Quaeda plan is "divide and conquer": exploit political differences in the democracies by committing terrorist acts which are then blamed on the very people fighting terror: the USA, Israel, the former Spanish government, etc. They thus hope to install governments that will be squeamish and ineffective in fighting back.