On 16 Mar 2004 00:05:01 -0800,
(Tony Williams) wrote:

"Tony" wrote in message news:WOt5c.5074$%g.3194@okepread02...
Well, we now have the first surrender in the War on Terror. Spain has
surrendered to Al Quada and will remove its troops from Iraq.
Do the Spanish really think that will be Al Quada's last demand?



It is facile to assume that the Spanish cower before terrorism. If the
bombers had been ETA, the result would have been strong support for
the existing government in its fight against terrorism. It's just that
Iraq has always been an unpopular cause there.

And it is very important to note that thier support for the invasion
of Afghanistan never flagged-- FOXNEWs aside, it is possible to be
allies and yet disagree on the course of action one needs to take--
and most of Europe felt that Iraq didn't need to be invaded.
Given that one of hte claims of the U.S. was that "you'll see when
we invade and get all those WMD's", it's unsurprising that the
popularity of the invasion declined even further when the WMD never
appeared.
Al Qaeda may have successfully exploited an issue, but poor ally
managemant put it there in the first place. A wiser-- a MUCH wiser
course woudl have been to thank Spain for their assistance, but not
put the government in the position of going into Iraq-- instead, they
could have aided us even more in Afghanistan, freeing troops for Iraqi
operations and incidentally, helping Spain's (then) government.