New Spanish PM Blasts Bush, Blair; Accuses them of lying; Suggests force not answer to terrorism

Asia News Channel ^ | March 15, 2004 | nwrep

[nwrep]

MADRID : Spain's prime minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero vowed to withdraw troops from Iraq and criticised US President George W. Bush after Spanish voters ousted governing conservatives who took the country into the controversial war.

"The war in Iraq was a disaster, the occupation of Iraq is a disaster," Zapatero, 43, told Cadena Ser radio on Monday.

He spoke just before the European Union held three minutes' silence in tribute to the 200 people killed in last Thursday's bombings of crowded Madrid commuter trains.

An ongoing investigation into the attacks has found growing evidence they were carried out by Islamic extremists linked to Al-Qaeda as punishment for Spain's help in the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Voters turned out in force for Sunday's elections. Many of them expressed anger at retiring Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar when he cast his ballot, jostling and booing him while some shouted "Aznar: your war, our dead."

Zapatero, whose Socialist Party ended eight years of rule by Aznar's Popular Party (PP) after winning 43 percent of the ballots to the PP's 38 percent, said near-total public opposition to the Iraq war had been key.

He said that barring new developments in Iraq before June 30 -- the date the United States has promised to hand power over to an Iraqi provisional government -- Spain's 1,300 troops in Iraq "will return home" as he had promised before the elections.

The other occupying states will be contacted for consultations on withdrawing the soldiers, he said.

Zapatero also said Bush and his main ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, need to engage in "self-criticism".

"You can't bomb a people just in case" they pose a perceived threat, Zapatero said in statements just five days before the first anniversary of the March 20 start of the war.

"You can't organise a war on the basis of lies," he said, alluding to Bush's and Blair's insistence the war was justified by their belief -- so far unfounded -- that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that posed an imminent threat.

"Wars such as that which has occurred in Iraq only allow hatred, violence and terror to proliferate," he said.

The head of the EU executive arm, European Commission chief Romano Prodi, agreed in an interview published by Italy's La Stampa newspaper Monday.

"It is clear that using force is not the answer to resolving the conflict with terrorists," Prodi said. "Terrorism is infinitely more powerful than a year ago," and all of Europe now feels threatened, he told the paper.

The loss of the United States' and Britain's main ally has left Bush especially looking exposed as he faces the November presidential election.

While Zapatero fielded congratulations from French President Jacques Chirac, South African President Thabo Mbeki and other world leaders, Bush had yet to make a call.

[atomicpossum]

Goodbye, Europe.

[nwrep]

PING

[areafiftyone]

Here we goooooo! I guess the new prime minister was one of the foreign leaders that supports Kerry. It figures - socialists love Kerry!

[TXBSAFH]

I guess his wife is being fiutted for her berqua (SP?) now.

[nuconvert]

Oh, Good Start.

Sheesh.........Adios

[goldstategop]

Jose Zapatero strikes me as a terminally stupid Leftist. I am against Colon Bowell's suggestion we appease him with a useless UN mandate for Iraq. That's the wrong way to go. If he wants to pull out his nation's troops from Iraq, that's his affair. Maybe Al Qaeda will overlook attacks on Spain in the future as a good will gesture to Zapatero's Socialist Party government.

[txzman]

It is simply shocking that these people, having lived through Hitler, Franco and the Spanish Civil War, would have such a position.

Do they not remember Neville Chamberlain? Perhaps they are that ignorant.

[rintense]

Blessing in disguise. If Kerry is associated with pacifist foreign leaders, it will only hurt him, not help him. Look for the Kerry campaign to find ways to ostracize him from the foreign leaders who cave in to terrorists. Kerry couldn't even answer the questions Cedric Brown asked!

[billorites]

"As I said before, we need to punish Spain."

No more artichoke hearts, capers or saffron for me.

[tbpiper]

It is clear that using force is not the answer to resolving the conflict with terrorists

Waiting with baited breath (sorry, anchovies) to hear what his alternative is.

[Jeff Head]

Fool

[Gaffrig]

Great, we now have to deal with the Howard Dean of Spain.

[conservativecorner]

It's the 1930's all over again for europe. Let them eat cake when they come calling for help.

[RandallFlagg]

Yeah. I remember just three months ago telling my Wife that I wanted to fly to Spain for vacation in the next few years.

I guess THAT'S not happenin' anymore.

Hello, Australia and UK!

[January24th]

Go read www.steynonline.com for a pithy observation about this. Excerpt:

In his penultimate public appearance, the late Osama bin Laden, broadcasting from his cave in the early hours of the Afghan campaign, listed among his principal grievances "the tragedy of Andalusia" – that is, the end of Muslim rule in Spain in 1492. That's 512 years ago, but the al-Qa'ida guys are in no mood to (as the Democrats used to urge Republicans in the Clinton impeachment era) "move on". After half a millennium, even Paula Jones would have thrown in the towel. But not these fellows. They're still settling scores from the 15th century. They might not get around to Johnny-come-lately grievances such as Iraq until the early 2600s. ....
....
Even if you'd avoided Iraq or Andalusia or British banks or Pilger or any other affront to Islamist sensibilities, you'd still be a target. As the PR guy for the Islamic Army of Aden said after blowing up that French tanker: "We would have preferred to hit a US frigate, but no problem because they are all infidels." Commissioner Keelty is confusing old-school terrorism – blowing the legs off grannies as a means to an end – with the new: blowing the legs off grannies is the end.

[Marylander]

carried out by Islamic extremists linked to Al-Qaeda as punishment for Spain's help in the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Does that prove Saddam had links to Al-Qaeda?

[nuconvert]

“The first thing I will do when I am elected is to go to the United States and support John Kerry,"

That's what he said last week.

Que lastima