Spanish Election Tests Bush's Global Coalition

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=4580110

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush's claim to lead an international "coalition of the willing" in Iraq has been badly dented by the result of the Spanish election, giving fresh ammunition to anti-war voices at home and abroad.

"This is a consequence of what we knew a year ago -- that Bush tried to force governments to choose between their own voters and the White House," said Tom Andrews, a former Democratic congressman from Maine, now national director of Win Without War, a grassroots anti-Iraq war group.

"The White House tried to sweeten the pot for those countries that joined the coalition but this was never a coalition of the willing, as Bush claimed. It was a coalition of the coerced and the purchased -- and now those leaders have to face their own voters," he said.

Clifford May, a former senior official with the Republican National Committee, now with the Center for the Defense of Democracies, said the Bush administration needed to try harder to convince international public opinion that defeating U.S. enemies in Iraq was vital in the "war on terrorism."

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[Barkley]

1. Finally, the media is NOW beginning to listen to anti-war activists

Go Tom Andrews and "Win Without War"!

Great Post!

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. The tone is changing and it is like the talking points from the RNC

are no longer sticking.

KEEP EMAILING THEM!

[Beetwasher]

3. I Hope You're Right

I vaccilate between thinking progress is being made and it's still business as usual...I'll get encouraged but then I'll see a report about the cable news dolts spewing propoganda and I get all discouraged again...Then I donate to Kerry and feel better!

[cliss]

4. The sad thing about Jose Maria Aznar,

is that Bush doesn't care about him or his party. Now that they've been ousted, they've been left out in the cold.

So much for solidarity. European countries need to do what's right for them and their constituents, and not look to Washington for cues. German's Schröeder got voted in because of his criticism of Bush.

[David__77]

5. Brunei might defect... then there will be only be 2 countries left.

I'm not meaning to be hard on Brunei. But I am mocking the US "dollar diplomacy" when they were desperate to scrape together some numbers. We were talking El Salvador, not Brazil, for instance. The big countries with a consistent foreign policy don't fall for this crap.