A US soldier takes a vacation to the Caribbean and books his tickets online with Expedia or some such company.
One of these island governments requests lists of customers traveling to their country for security purposes.
The island government has a relationship with Spain and tips Spain to the soldier's travel plans.
Spain quietly works with the island's gov't to extradite the soldier once he arrives.
The soldier arrives, passport control says there's a problem with his passport, asks him to step into an office while they check their paperwork and an island detective then cuffs him and escorts him on the next flight to Barcelona.
Next step:
Seals and Marines attack Spain and rescue the soldier, sadly killing 15,000 Spanish civilians. Lots of international complaints, but nothing comes of them. Judge and Spanish government are changed by their people because they were stupid enough to attack the U.S.
End of problem.
An all too likely scenario except it could happen with any country with an extradition treaty with Spain or the EU. These troops will not be able to leave the US in safety unless Bush takes action to force Spain to rescind this order.
"The soldier arrives, passport control says there's a problem with his passport, asks him to step into an office while they check their paperwork and an island detective then cuffs him and escorts him on the next flight to Barcelona."
Theoretically, maybe. In actuality, not a chance. Liberals and US haters are good at finding activist judges who will pull crap like issuing an arrest warrant like this. Spain's govenment might do some political posturing, but neither Spain, nor some little Caribian country is going to abduct a US citizen under the guise of a criminal trial for an incident that has already been reviewed by the US military.
That would likely be considered an act of war.
Very true but the diplomatic shiete storm and embargo on Spanish goods and tourism will cause them more grief then its worth in the long run. Might even be a catalyst to change governments. But the Islamics will love them long time.
Continuing Post 18:
Shortly thereafter, the skys over Barcelona fill with B52s. Spain is given 15 minutes to put soldier back on plane to USA or start digging mass graves. P.S. You can use the B52 bomb craters for starters.
This of course would be the scenario if we had a president with a set to threaten this.
Sad but true. Until this is resolved and the arrest warrant dropped, these soldiers will have to be very careful when traveling abroad, if they want to risk it at all.
The problem with your scenario is that for international flights...the only way you'd get to Europe from an island in the Caribbean is via Miami or Havana. Most of these islands have few if any flights to Mexico City or South America...so getting that GI out to Spain will be very difficult.
My guess is that they will wait this out until Hillery takes office...which you may have a good laugh on...but its a 50 percent chance that she will win. Within 30 days of taking office, she will likely pull out a list of things to make European allies happy about, and this will be in the top ten. She will probably direct DOD (if they are still in the military)...to transport them to a stockade where a Spanish escourt would take them to Spain after a brief manufactured legal process (likely created by White House terms under President Hillery...don't laugh now...because it is possible).
After DOD refuses to hand these guys over...she will demand the secretary of defense to fire the top general and appoint someone to take her orders. The second guy will likely refuse the order, thus requiring some old formerly retired general (from Bill's years) to be brought back on duty to accomplish "impossible" task.
Meanwhile, the one guy who is likely out of the military and a civlian....will be sought by FBI agents (ordered again by President Hillery). The sought-after guy will likely show up in Texas or Oklahoma...where local law enforcement will gather with some national guard guys to encircle and protect "their local citizen". Hillery will "order" the guard guys to stand down, and will bring in heavy government officials to convince the state to just give up. By this time...around 5,000 locals will have joined up in this mess creating a mega force for the Feds to deal with. The Spanish, by this point, will be laughing because they achieved all this by just a simple Spanish legal request. And Hillery looks like a fool on Fox for her amusing orders to government officals. Retired president Bush then offers his healthly criticism of her "regime".
By the end...the Bush-stacked supreme court will weigh in, and by a margin of 5-4...strangely enough...they tell Hillery she doesn't have the authority to hand US troops over to foreign governments. She gives up her quest...but then sets to a mind to restack the entire supreme court in her favor as each retires...which 3 will likely come up during the next 4-year term.
Shortly thereafter, the Barcelona lock-up facility finds its doors being destroyed, and the facility overran by a small team of U.S. Marines from Rota NAS, who are provided full air support from the same facility. Ten or so marines should be able to kick all the butt needed to spring the unfortunate GI.
The whole idea of a Spanish (or any other nationality) judge issuing an arrest warrant for an American GI is ludicrous! I doubt even Spain could find anyone stoopid enough to try and enforce that warrant!
And war would soon follow.
Is Spain's constitution set up such that their president can issue a pardon in such cases? That would be the easy political way out for them. The stupid court is encouraged to try them in absentia then their president issues a pardon.