You, sir, are not staying the course. ;-)

BTW, I believe the PO is signed for the USCG (or whatever we call the
USCG nowadays) CASA235s, so the bribe money has been paid and thus the
Spanish troops can go home. They have those home grown bad guys to
take care of, though as we know, it's more police action than military
action.

"Emmanuel Gustin" wrote in message ...
"Scott Ferrin" wrote in message
...

"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spain's 1,400 troops in Iraq will be withdrawn
"in the shortest possible time," the country's new prime minister said
Sunday.

Well, how could a Spanish government ask its soldiers to
risk their lives to implement a policy it does not believe in?
That would be an utterly impossible line to take. Zapatero
promised his voters that he would call the Spanish troops
back from Iraq over a year ago. He is keeping his promise --
such things happen, even in politics.

Dubyah's favourite whine is that everyone who is not 100%
behind him is giving in to terrorism. Considering the chaos
he has caused so far, and the lack of indication that this has
reduced the threat of terrorism (the Spanish have every reason
to suspect the contrary), this line is getting a little stale. Maybe
Zapatero thinks Spain knows better ways to fight terrorism.
If so he may very well be right; they at least the advantage of
experience.

It is a bad thing for Iraq, but I suspect that in the long run it
makes very little difference. These 1,400 troops matter far
less than the continuing lack of a credible policy to give Iraq
a stable and democratic government. George W. may vow to
use "decisive force", but US soldiers would have to be able
to walk on water to be able to decide this one in his favour.

It is about time Bush and Blair got a grip on reality. It may be
nice to use the words "freedom" and "democracy" a lot, but
the man in the street in Fallujah -- thoroughly used to the tricks
of propaganda -- probably hears "a pro-American government
that will sell its oil cheap, condone the Israeli treatment of the
Palestinians, and replace Islam with Coca-Cola and debased
television programmes." And, sadly enough, that perception may
be closer to the truth than Dubyah's high-flying rethoric.