OPINION — Editorial

Terror in Spain

The terrorist attacks in Spain's Catalonia region superficially resembled the car assaults that have murdered random pedestrians in Nice, Berlin, London and Stockholm in the past 13 months. Yet this plot was on another scale. Rather than a solo operation, the attacks in Barcelona and the seaside resort of Cambrils were carried out by a cell of at least eight to as many as 12 people, authorities said. Fourteen people died and 126 were injured--but the carnage could easily have been worse. Police now believe that a house that was destroyed in an explosion before the attacks contained propane canisters the terrorists intended to use in the attacks. And the quick response by officers in Cambrils likely saved many lives.

The assaults have failed to intimidate governments and citizens elsewhere in Europe, and so far Spain--which withdrew its forces from Iraq not long after another major terrorist attack in 2004--appears to be no exception.

If there doesn't seem to be a danger of capitulation to the terrorists, there is nevertheless a risk the Islamic State will achieve one of its major aims: isolating Muslim communities in the West and fomenting prejudice or even violence against them. In that sense, the extremists have an ally in President Donald Trump, who responded to the Catalonia attacks with a tweet that simultaneously slandered one of America's most renowned generals and suggested that the appropriate response to "Radical Islamic Terror" was war crimes. Trump cited a false story he has previously told about Gen. John Pershing, who the president said ordered the massacre of Muslim insurgents in the Philippines in the early 20th century with bullets dipped in pig blood.

Nothing of the kind occurred. But if attacks like those in Spain lead to lawless violence by U.S. or European forces or crude insults to Muslim communities, not just the Islamic State will be to blame.

Editorial on 08/22/2017

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