[Peace-discuss] Kerry and Spain

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

http://www.counterpunch.com/stclair03192004.html


More Than a Dime's Worth of Difference...in Spain 
Zapatero to Kerry: Back Off, Senator, Our Troops Are Coming Home 

By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR

At the precise moment Bush's Iraq coalition began to show signs of some
fatal fissures, John Kerry strode forth to do the president's bidding for
him.

After the newly-elected Prime Minister of Spain, Jose Luis Rodriguez
Zapatero, announced his intentions to pull out Spanish troops from Iraq,
Kerry, anxious to prove that he can manhandle world leaders into
compliance with US imperial objections with more efficiency than Bush,
rushed in front of the cameras to demand that Zapatero reverse himself.
Withdrawing Spanish troops now, Kerry chided, would send the wrong
signal.

Wrong signal? And what signal is that? That there is more than a dime's
worth of difference between Aznar and Zapatero on Iraq as opposed to the
bloody harmony between Kerry and Bush? That politicians should keep their
promises for at least a week?

Fortunately, Zapatero, who had previously said that he'd like to see
Kerry elected president, was having none of it. He swiftly rebuked the
senator's meddling. "My commitment is my commitment," Zapatero said.
"Maybe John Kerry does not know--but I am happy to explain it to
him--that my commitment to withdraw the troops goes back before the
tragic, dramatic terrorist attack. If the United Nations does not take
over the situation and there is not a rethinking of this chaotic
occupation we are living through, in which there are more dead in the
occupation than in the war phase, the Spanish troops are going to return
to Spain."

Zapatero called the occupation of Iraq a fiasco that will lead only to
more violence and hatred of the US-led forces. "There have been more
deaths since the end of the war than during the invasion itself,"
Zapatero said. "Our allegiance will be for peace and against war. No more
deaths for oil."

The feisty socialist also lashed out at the Bush administration's war on
Afghanistan, which Kerry also backed without regret. "Fighting terrorism
with bombs and Tomahawk cruise missiles isn't the way to defeat it," he
said. "Terrorism must be combatted by a state of law. That's what I think
Europe and the international community must debate."

Kerry could learn much from Zapatero's firm and sensible stand. But don't
expect the senator to take any signals from abroad. The US presidential
election is shaping up as a battle over manliness, a kind of political
bodybuilding contest. Kerry wants to run as senator machismo. He doesn't
want to pull out US forces. He wants to top Bush by calling up 40,000
more troops and inserting more European forces to join in the bloodbath.
No wonder Kerry has a hard time naming the European leaders that want him
in the White House.

Watch the death count soar from now to November.