[Peace-discuss] Kerry and Spain

[C. G. Estabrook]

Jeffrey St. Clair, editor of Counterpunch and author of this article, will
be our guest in C-U in the middle of next month.  I'd suggest that AWARE
might use him in some public presentation(s).  --CGE


On Sun, 21 Mar 2004 Dlind49 at aol.com wrote:

> 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. 
> 
> 
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