[ No shit! Really? Wow, I had better inform everyone I know ASAP!
Quote of the day:
"This is the third big ally which has had an election in which those who
ran against Bush's foreign policy won: Germany in 2002, South Korea in
2003 and now Spain in 2004,"
...
"If there is a message here for political leaders, it is, 'Don't go and
visit Crawford,' " he added, referring to Bush's Texas hometown.
FUCK YEAH. The most powerful protest is still to vote!
(Disclaimer: The above statements are true unless you happen to be
voting in a Diebold sanctioned precinct, in which case, please type in
'56664' at the prompt and enter your last 4 digits of your SSN)
-j
]
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Spanish Victor Says Iraq War Based on 'Lies'
The incoming Socialist prime minister plans to remove his nation's 1,300
troops by June 30. Washington downplays the apparent setback.
By Sonni Efron and Bruce Wallace
Special to The Times
March 16, 2004
WASHINGTON — Spain's new leader promised Monday to withdraw his nation's
1,300 troops from Iraq and called the war "an error" based on "lies."
But the Bush administration sought to contain the political damage from
the weekend's upset victory by Spain's Socialist Party, stressing that
the two nations shared the goal of defeating terrorism.
In a move that would fracture the coalition of 35 nations with troops in
Iraq, incoming Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said he would
withdraw Spanish troops in Iraq by June 30 unless they were serving
under a new United Nations mandate.
Although U.S. officials played down the significance of Zapatero's
threat, independent analysts called the electoral defeat of Spanish
Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's Popular Party a disaster for the Bush
administration.
The blow to Aznar, the second-most important U.S. ally on Iraq after
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, threatens to undermine other world
leaders who cooperate with the United States over the objections of
their public, the said. "This is the third big ally which has had an
election in which those who ran against Bush's foreign policy won:
Germany in 2002, South Korea in 2003 and now Spain in 2004," said Ivo
Daalder of the Brookings Institution in Washington.
"If there is a message here for political leaders, it is, 'Don't go and
visit Crawford,' " he added, referring to Bush's Texas hometown.
Aznar's surprise defeat followed bombings that killed at least 200 and
injured 1,500 in Madrid on Thursday.
The government initially blamed the attacks on Basque separatists, but
on the eve of the election, a previously unknown Al Qaeda figure claimed
responsibility for the bombings, saying they were intended to punish
Spain for its cooperation with the United States in the war in Iraq,
which up to 90% of Spaniards opposed, polls showed.
The electoral results risk sending the inadvertent message that
terrorists can succeed in unseating governments they dislike, said
Philip H. Gordon, a former National Security Council European specialist.
"Clearly, this was a bad result in every possible way," Gordon said. "It
took away a staunch conservative ally in Europe, it undermines the
notion that we have a coalition, and it sends a message that governments
can win by distancing themselves from the United States."
The Bush administration now needs to "try to avoid a scenario in which
bashing the U.S. becomes the way governments in Europe get elected,"
Gordon said. Aznar had governed Spain for the last eight years and was
not running for reelection, but had designated a successor.
Meanwhile, leaders of nations who are assisting the U.S.-led occupation
of Iraq, including Britain, Italy and Poland, will "have to see this as
a warning," Gordon said. "Their private communications to the U.S. will
be, 'Don't ask too much of us, because we don't want to suffer the same
fate as Aznar.' "
One State Department official said Washington was worried that the
perception that the Spanish government had fallen because of its Iraq
policy could affect other nations — and that American friendship could
endanger its allies.
The official said friendly Arab nations in particular had pleaded with
the United States for months, "Don't commend us too highly, because
right now too tight an embrace of us coming from the U.S. can hurt us."
On Monday, U.S. officials reached out to the incoming Spanish leadership
and downplayed stinging criticism emanating from Madrid.
After placing a condolence call to Aznar, President Bush called Zapatero
on Monday to congratulate him. The two leaders pledged to work together
on countering terrorism, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. In
the 10-minute conversation, Bush and Zapatero did not discuss the
withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq, McClellan said.
One U.S. official noted that the United States and Spain had had a long
and stable relationship no matter which political party was in power in
Madrid. "They've been good strong members of NATO for a long time," he
said. "This isn't a relationship where we go from one extreme to another."
The official said Washington's goal was to "engage with them
meaningfully" to try to minimize any abrupt change in course.
But the 40-year-old Zapatero, a lawyer who in 18 years in parliament had
earned a reputation as a politician who tried not to offend, made clear
that he intended to steer Spain out of the American orbit and back
toward European countries, including France and Germany, that opposed
the Iraq war.
"Spain is going to be more pro-Europe than ever," promised Zapatero, who
is expected to assume his post within weeks.
He lashed out at Bush and Blair, saying they needed "to engage in some
self-criticism" over their conduct of the war. "You can't bombard a
people just in case they pose a perceived threat," Zapatero said,
referring to the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
"You can't organize a war on the basis of lies."
Wars like the one in Iraq "only allow hatred, violence and terror to
proliferate," he added.
The State Department, asked for comment on the remarks, tried to defuse
an incipient spat. "This is this first day of a new administration,
let's let them get into place, let's let them put their team together,"
a senior official said. "There's a difference between campaigning and
governing…. So let's see what happens."
Although Zapatero said he doubted that a new United Nations mandate for
coalition troops in Iraq could be put together in time to forestall a
Spanish troop withdrawal on June 30, the State Department official said
that remains to be seen.
"Maybe there will be a mandate, and maybe they'll decide to stay," the
official said. "If they decide to withdraw the troops … it's not the end
of the world…. It's not going to mean the collapse of the coalition, and
it's not going to mean the collapse of Iraq."
The Bush administration has insisted that it does not need a new United
Nations resolution to legitimize coalition military operations in Iraq
because previous resolutions have authorized the occupation authority.
But Washington fully expects there to be a resolution recognizing the
planned June 30 transfer of sovereignty to a new Iraqi transitional
government. No wording has been drafted because the makeup of the
transitional government has yet to be decided, the official said.
Meanwhile, in New York, the Spanish ambassador to the U.N. had to draft
an embarrassing retraction for his government Monday to correct a
Security Council resolution that was adopted at Spain's insistence last
week. That resolution blamed the Basque separatist group ETA for the
Madrid bombings, despite strong reservations by other Europeans who
thought the evidence pointing to ETA was insufficient.
Spanish Ambassador Inocencio Arias sent a letter to the Security Council
to clarify that "new elements had been discovered" that pointed to
foreign attackers and promising to inform the council when the Spanish
investigation was complete.
The Security Council almost always avoids naming suspects in such
resolutions — and did not even condemn Al Qaeda for the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks on the United States. However, within hours of last week's train
bombings, the Spanish government sent all of its ambassadors
instructions to approach the media and blame ETA, according to
diplomatic sources from two countries.
Other diplomats reluctantly agreed to Spain's demands, because "when you
have an ally who has suffered from a terrorist attack, you don't
bargain," one said. "But the next day, we felt really stupid," another
Security Council diplomat said.
In Europe, many argued that the Aznar government's initial decision to
discount the possible involvement of Al Qaeda played a large role in his
party's defeat.
Some officials argued that it was the mismanagement of the crisis, not
Aznar's support of the war in Iraq, that turned the public against his
Popular Party.
Official turnout in the election was 77%, but one European diplomat said
voters in the Basque regions turned out especially heavily to protest
what they saw as the government's attempt to blame ETA without evidence.
On Monday, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw attempted to counter the
widespread conclusion that Spain was targeted because of its support for
the Iraq war.
"No one should get the idea that somehow if you were a country which was
opposed to the military action in Iraq, you are less of a target for Al
Qaeda and these terrible Islamic fanatics," Straw said.
"Nobody, nobody should believe that somehow we can opt out of the war
against Islamic terrorism," he said.
Two minor members of the military coalition in Iraq, El Salvador and
Honduras, stepped up security measures against the possibility of
attacks but promised not to curtail their operations.
Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller issued a similar pledge, saying that
to withdraw his country's 2,500 troops in Iraq "would be admitting that
it is terrorists who are right and are stronger than the entire
civilized world which is fighting them."
However, several Polish opposition parties, noting that 70% of their
public opposed the war, sent a letter to the government asking that the
troops be withdrawn — a demand almost certain to be rejected.
Some European diplomats acknowledged that public opposition to military
participation in Iraq could become an issue in elections across the
continent. But they predicted that the issue would fade once the U.N.
began to play a more prominent role in Iraq after June 30.
So it remained unclear Monday how the Madrid attacks would affect the
broader political climate in Europe.
*
Staff writer Efron reported from Washington and special correspondent
Wallace from Madrid. Staff writers Maggie Farley in New York, Paul
Richter and Ken Silverstein in Washington, and researchers Janet Stobart
in London and Ela Kasprzycka in Warsaw also contributed to this report.
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