E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Zapatero sez US should dump Bush
Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Wednesday described the U.S. occupation of Iraq as "a fiasco" and suggested American voters should follow the example set by Spain and change their leadership by supporting Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts for president in November. "I said during the campaign I hoped Spain and the Spaniards would be ahead of the Americans for once," Zapatero said in an interview on Onda Cero radio. "First we win here, we change this government, and then the Americans will do it, if things continue as they are in Kerry’s favor."
I think we all know what the reaction would have been if Bush had made remarks about the "need to block Zapatero" in the recent election.
Zapatero, whose Socialist Party swept the governing Popular Party out of office in elections Sunday, just three days after terrorist attacks killed 201 people in Madrid, also rejected President Bush’s request that he reconsider his plans to withdraw Spain’s troops from Iraq unless the United Nations is given control of the country. "I’ll listen to Mr. Bush. But my position is very clear and firm," Zapatero said. "The occupation is a fiasco," he said. "There have almost been more killed after the war, from a year ago, than during the war. In the end, the occupying forces have not handed over control of the situation to the U.N."

The Spanish force currently in Iraq is scheduled to come home in April, and a replacement contingent had its farewell ceremony Wednesday at a Spanish military base. Officials said no decision had been made to delay or cancel the transfer. Zapatero said he looked forward to "a profound debate" with the Bush administration about how to effectively combat terrorism. "Fighting terrorism with bombs, with Tomahawk missiles, isn’t the way to beat terrorism, but the way to generate more radicalism," he said. Zapatero’s implicit endorsement of Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee, was a surprising public repudiation of a sitting U.S. president by the incoming leader of an allied country and fellow NATO member. Members of Spain’s Popular Party -- which will become the opposition when Zapatero, a 43-year-old lawyer, takes office next month -- immediately criticized Zapatero’s remarks, saying they demonstrated his inexperience in diplomacy. "I think that was extremely un-careful," said Gustavo de Aristegui, a Popular Party member of parliament who is expected to become the opposition’s spokesman on foreign affairs. "A prime minister cannot say that -- maybe an opposition leader can say that."

The Spanish interior minister, Angel Acebes, offered no new details about the investigation Wednesday, telling reporters that it had reached "a decisive phase." The Spanish are being assisted by Moroccan investigators and by other European intelligence agencies. The FBI is helping with fingerprint and background checks on some suspects. Also Wednesday, the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that investigators believe the explosives used in the attacks may have been stolen from a factory in Burgos, north of Madrid, and that the detonators had come from a nearby rock quarry. That would suggest a high degree of local knowledge and some sophisticated planning for the attacks.
Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-03-18
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=28423