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Spain’s Churchill Speaks Out; Neville’s Not Listening
Aznar Says Successor’s Iraq Plan Is a Big Mistake
Spain’s outgoing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said Monday his successor was making a serious mistake by planning to withdraw troops from Iraq, portraying the move as a concession to terrorism.
Neville Zapatero, call your office.
In his first interview since his party’s stinging defeat in March 14 elections, held in the shadow of train bombings that killed 202 people, Aznar urged Spain not to give in to violence.
Sorry, brave sir, the majority of them already did.
"What the terrorists want is for us to throw in the towel. What I ask for, hope and wish is that we never throw in the towel," he said on Telecinco television.
I fear Zappy and his cronies will give them the towel, and probably pay them to take it. Bet ETA’s watching and learning.
Aznar, a close ally of President Bush,
which makes him a traitor in the eyes of the Left
supported the Iraq war and sent 1,300 Spanish troops there afterwards to help keep the peace. Incoming Socialist prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has raised controversy with his pledge to withdraw the Spanish troops if the United Nations does not "take charge" there by June 30.
The UN can’t "take charge" of finding their asses with both hands. They only thing they’re good at taking charge of is other people’s money.
Aznar said withdrawing the troops "seems to me a very serious error."
"A very serious error" - that describes Zappy to a T.
"When you have such a brutal attack as Spain has suffered ... you have to carry out your responsibilities.
of sticking your head in the sand, apparently. ’Course, the leftists forget what’s still exposed when they do that.
The first thing that Mr. Rodriguez Zapatero has to know is what he wants to do with the Spanish troops in Iraq and secondly think what he wants the United Nations to do," he said. "But to think that you can beat terrorism with concessions seems bad to me. I think that weakening the international coalition fighting terrorism is a very serious error," he said. Bush and other leading U.S. politicians have urged Zapatero to rethink the move, which some analysts think could have a "domino" effect on other nations which have sent troops to Iraq.
The Left, particularly in Europe, is terrified of a "domino effect" all right. They’re scared the Middle East thugocracies may "domino" into democracies.
Aznar said he believed the rail attacks had "something to do" with the upset election result.
Ya’ think?
Polls before the attacks had shown Aznar’s conservative Popular Party consistently ahead. He said the government had always told the truth after the March 11 attacks, despite widespread anger over its handling of information on the investigation.
Truth apparently doesn’t matter. So what’s new?
The government initially insisted the armed Basque separatist group ETA was the most likely suspect even though later evidence pointed to Muslim militants. "I leave with my head held high and proud of the work I have done," Aznar said.
As well you should, friend.
I think history will show Aznar to be Spain’s modern-day Churchill (if you don’t know why, you don’t know much about pre-WWII European history). I just hope Spain survives to find out.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut bskolaut@hotmail.com 2004-03-23
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=28913