NEW YORK (CNN) - No matter how rosy or how cautious the 2004 economic forecast, it seems everyone adds one caveat to their numbers: barring an unforeseen catastrophe like another terror attack on U.S. soil.
Terrorism is the dark shadow hanging over the economy, like a cancer that seems to be in remission, but leaves the patient and the doctor wondering if they are really cured.
Last week's terror attack reverberated around the world. When the Spanish poured out in the streets, saying, "We were all on that train," many of us shared their emotion.
The dollar cost of the war on terror runs to bigger defense budgets to the cost of extra security in airports and more police around trains and subway stations.
For all these reasons the Spanish vote against their conservative leader who supported the war in Iraq also reverberates around the world. Is it a vote for change, a vote to get out of Iraq in order to make the terrorists turn their spotlight elsewhere?
That is undoubtedly too simplistic, for their are many issues confronting the Spanish people besides terror, although the new prime minister has already announced he is withdrawing troops from Iraq.
But now many are asking now if this will send a message to terrorists that if they hit us hard enough we will back down? And if that is the message, and if that emboldens the terrorists, if we will be paying even higher costs to fight terror - in lives, and in dollars - than we would have otherwise?
Kathleen Hays anchors CNN Money Morning and The FlipSide, airing Monday to Friday on CNNfn. As part of CNN's Business News team, she also contributes to Lou Dobbs Tonight.
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