http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/04/18/spain.withdraw/index.html Looks like Spain's new communist government is acting with upmost efficiency.
Now that Spain has caved into A.Q., how long before we get more Madrid like attacks in the U.K. and other countries with troops in Iraq. Way to go Spain! Cave in!
Spains' mistake in leaving Iraq, is not the leaving in and of itself, IMO. The problem is the fact that they yielded to the will of the terrorists. IMO, there are other reasons why Spain might not want to continue their involvement in this war.
Spain's involvement in Iraq was extremely unpopular at home and the opposition no doubt would have run on an antiwar/withdrawal platform even if the Madrid attacks hadn't happened. That a withdrawal is going to take place in the wake of those attacks does work (very well) to give the impression that the withdrawal is a result of those attacks.
i agree that it's unwise for spain to withdraw at this point in time, and would prefer that they didn't; however, i can't say that i'd force anyone to stay in iraq to die - can you? you guys give al queda too much credit. more people die from construction accidents every year (for example) than from all terrorist attacks combined. fearing terror attacks in your day-to-day life is about as fruitful as worrying about getting hit by lightning. don't let the media & politicians scare you into thinking that a band of turbaned marauders is going to come winnabago-ing to your town to demolish your local power plant. contrary to popular belief, there are alot of foreigners who still like the US. spend your time thinking about them instead.
It's only consequent for Spain to get out: The whole war in Iraq had nothing to do with the fight agaisnt terror, was based on nothing but lies, and it was only Bush who wanted this war for private and oil reasons. 80% of all Spaniards were against the war as they are not in the habit of blindly following their leaders like in the US, and simply never saw any evidence to support Bushs claims of a threat emanting from Iraq. Same goes for 90% of Europe as well, btw. Well hey, with his endless deceptions and outright fraud Coward-in-Chief Bush got what he wanted, so its got to be him who takes care of it. One has to have full respect for the Spanish decision. While America gets boggled down in a war of its own choosing that had zilch to with terror or 9-11 or anything else apart from oil and corruption, the rest of the world can finally get out there and do something real agaisnt terror, which is the exact position of the new Spanish government: this war had nothing to do with terror, has only created new terror, and it's now time to do something effective agaisnt terror as opposed to going along with the evil and counter productive corruption and lies of Bush. Way to go Spain, and the others won't be far down the road. The Polish Prez has also been complaining already that he was taken for a ride by our Liar-in-Chief Bush, I'd bet they're next in line to get out.
I certainly don't agree that it was the best decision to start a war with Iraq and then occupy it -- I'll agree with you there. Also, I know that Iraq was not directly proved to be involved in the terrorist arena. However, Iraq was involved with A.Q. post-facto simply due to the reason that A.Q. made it their priority to involve themselves with Iraq once we occupied it. In my opinion, for Spain to pull their troops out at this exact time sets a bad precedent for other European countries helping out in Iraq. Keep in mind that this is just after the apparent Osama Bin Laden gave Europe a three month ultimatum to get out of Iraq. With the Madrid bombings still fresh in the minds of everyone, Spain's disengagement is basically saying, "Hey, we don't want any more involvement in this game after the bombing, so we're going to concede to the terrorist's demands." So now you have a lot of muslim extremists going, "You know, these mini-9/11 euro-tour terrorist plots are really working! We bombed Spain and now they're disengaging their forces." What is that going to do in the long run? It's going to promote more attacks -- not prevent them.
Like sticking their heads between their tails and running because of the train being blown up? When the U.S.A. was hit, we didn't run, WE TOOK IT TO 'EM!! Yeah, it's time for the U.S. soldiers to come home, but not because the terrorists detonated a bomb in our country. Makes Spain at least "appear" to be a country of cowards, who appease and yield to the demands of thugs.
Aphie, I think most Arabs will know that most of Europe has consistently been saying that the war the way Bush sold it - Iraq is a huge, imminent threat etc. - was not only ridiculous and wrong but also incredibly counter productive, and that the current Spanish government has in fact been saying exactly that for since way before Bush launched his attack. The current Spanish governemnt has consistently been saying that they don't want an empty and ultimately futile Hollywood show of "strength" which by now has turned more into a laughing stock number than anything else anyway, no, what they want is to get real results in fighting terror and its roots. They recently said that the American response to the Madrid bombings would have probably been an air raid on Marroco, while what they want to do is effectively fight terror, and not, unlike teh US approach, exacerbate the problem. Ignoring for the minute that the Iraq war was really probably nothing else than a run for Bushs oil buddies. While I agree with you that Iraq should be rebuilt properly as a free and democratic nation now and that an international effort is desperately needed, I just don't realistically see that happening as long as Bush is in office and for as long as America is running things in Iraq, either outright like now or even after the "handing over of power". For Europe to really get engaged money and other wise the whole thing would have to be put under UN and NATO administration, if only to remove the strong smell of corruption and deceit that the world sees between this war and US involvement with the CURRENT US administration in Iraq.