I’ve spent a good chunk of the last day or so reading and thinking about the elections in Spain and their implications. In spite of reading lots of articles, I still wouldn’t feel comfortable at all telling anyone why Spaniards voted out the Popular Party and voted in the Socialists. I’ve seen some theories that seem to make sense, but given my limited understanding of American politics, I certainly wouldn’t presume to understand Spanish politics.

That same limitation isn’t stopping many other people, though, who are eager to accuse Spain of appeasement for giving in to the terrorists. It probably shouldn’t need to be pointed out that Spain has plenty of experience with terrorism, having dealt with its own homegrown terrorists for the past forty years or so. I find it fascinating that the people who are quickest to bristle when foreigners tell us the proper way to respond to terrorism are the most eager to let other countries know when they’re not behaving appropriately.

Spain’s new prime minister claims that Spain’s number one priority is fighting terrorism. We’ll quickly learn whether that’s true. In the meantime, probably the best thing for the rest of the world to do is shut up and let the Spaniards deal with this in the way that makes sense to them.