Vargas Llosa in The Guardian
Several years ago I was able to attend Dr. Vargas Llosa's lectures at The University, which were wonderful. In my opinion, he's the greatest writer the Spanish language has ever had. He's also an insightful political observer:

The killers were not mistaken in their target: today's Madrid represents precisely the negation of the radical inhumanities of the obtuse, exclusive tribal spirit of fundamentalism, religious or political, which hates mixture, diversity and tolerance and, above all, liberty. This is the first European battle in a savage war that began exactly two years ago with the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York, and whose inroads will probably fill with blood and horror a good part of this new century. It is a war to the death, of course, and owing to the present fantastic development of the technology of destruction and the fanatic, suicidal zeal that inspires the international movement of terror, it is perhaps a trial even more difficult than those represented by fascism and communism for the culture of liberty.

Read the article here
Then read about a shameful cover-up. Historically, appeasement hasn't worked.