Terror and it's aftermath.... the US and Spain compared

[Kanary]

From an article by Javier Marías, the author of "Dark Back of Time." This was translated from the Spanish
by Esther Allen.

(massive snippage)

It is a terrible thing, but little by little you get used to the possibility of indiscriminate
attack just as we've all grown used to the certainty that there will be deaths on the
highways every weekend. "It's always going to happen - let's hope it doesn't happen to
us," becomes the unformed, unconscious thought.

Maybe that's why Spain, six months later, seems already to have overcome the trauma of
the railway bombings. There is no more fear than there was before, nor fewer liberties.
Today's Spanish government shows no interest in constantly sounding alarms. Our habits
seem as unchanging as the streets, the bars, the restaurants, the airports and the train
stations, all just as crowded as ever and as lively and buoyant.

(snip)

Here in Spain, we don't feel as if we are at war because we aren't. And neither are the
inhabitants of the United States, however vociferously many Americans may insist that
they are.

(snip)

There is no war against terrorism. There can be no such thing against an enemy that
remains dormant most of the time and is almost never visible. It's simply another of life's
inevitable troubles, and all we can do as we continue to combat it is repeat Cervantes's
famous phrase "Paciencia y barajar": "Have patience, and keep shuffling the cards."

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0910-11.htm