Zapatero-"You can't organize a war with lies"- To Bring Span. Troops Home

[BurtWorm]

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-spain.html?pagewanted=print&position=


March 15, 2004
Spain's Troops Heading Out of Iraq Under Zapatero
By REUTERS

Filed at 1:56 p.m. ET

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's incoming leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero indicated Monday he would pull his troops out of the ``disastrous'' occupation of Iraq in a major swing from his predecessor's pro-American foreign policy.

...


Some analysts said it could be an alarming first case of Islamist militants influencing, by violence, the outcome of a major Western election.

But Zapatero called his triumph a first consequence of the Iraq war's unpopularity with Spaniards.

...

``Mr Blair and Mr Bush must do some reflection and self-criticism... you can't organize a war with lies,'' he said in remarkably frank comments for the next prime minister of Western Europe's youngest democracy and fifth largest economy.

...

[bemildred]

1. Yikes.

:thumbsup:

[scottxyz]

2. Wow!

New Europe has spoken.

[Ganja Ninja]

3. Bush's lies are coming back to haunt him.

I don't blame the Spanish for bailing out. Blair should have known better but the Spanish were lied into this war.

[BurtWorm]

4. That is the message Zapatero evidently took, but the US media

are definitely taking some other lesson more pleasing to the Bushists: Zapatero's win is a "victory for terrorism." I would say 11-M was a profound loss for the Spanish people and they were tired of being lied to. Let it be a warning to all liars in power.