Has anyone ever sat down with a terrorist and asked them “why?” What was the answer? How could anything so horrific as bombing commuter trains, or blowing up embassies, or shooting children in the back from a safe distance possibly be justified? Maybe Danny Pearl tried, and look what happened to him.

How could acts of carnage be for the glory of God, or the glory of one’s homeland, or the glory of political ideology? It’s not glory at all, but infamy.

The world turns its attention, briefly, to this tragedy. Unfortunately, the entire planet is afflicted with ADD and sensory overload, so this horrific act will soon be replaced by some new outrage.

Is that the point? Getting the entire world to focus, however briefly, on horror?

There are still questions as to who is “responsible” for Madrid’s sorrow, because just now at Reuters.com a Basque/ETA spokesman insisted that it was not ETA’s operation. He blames, naturally, Al Qaeda (international scapegoats of mystery).

Easy enough for him to say, but there are likely splits and factions in the ETA, and he doesn’t actually speak for all of them. On the other hand, could there be a connection between the Madrid attacks and the threats to France’s rail system earlier in the week?

Lots of questions, unlikely there’ll be answers.