In psychology, there is a term known as reinforcement learning. This method of learning revolves around habitually responding to an action or behavior with a reward. Once the subject has learned that a particular action is always met with a reward, they expect that performing said action will result in another reward.

I’ve seen the results of Spain’s elections. I saw how the polls flip-flopped overnight. I know what caused this.

Am I a rocket scientist? No.

The result of the Spanish election is a reward. It’s a reward to whomever committed this horrid atrocity on March 11. It reinforces the idea that terrorism works. The moral of the story is that terrorism works and the Madrid bombings are bright and shining examples. The whole world is watching and the citizens of Spain have spoken. “We are slaves to terrorism,” they said. “If you do not like our actions, terrorize us and we will vote in your favor.”

Some might say the United States does the same thing. If we do not like a country’s actions, we attack it. But the United States’ goal is to save lives, not take them. If there is a war between the free world and terror, it seems that overnight Spain has lost some of its freedom.

Behold, terrorism produces results.

As of now, whether you plan to vote Democratic or Republican, do not allow terrorist attacks, on either our soil or foreign soil, to change your mind. The United States is a completely sovereign nation and we should, despite terrorist attacks, remain a completely sovereign free people.

David Johnson is a computer science fourth-year. He welcomes comments at [email protected]