Spain Completes Troop Pull Out From Iraq
Spain has completed the withdrawal of its peacekeeping troops from Iraq, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Tuesday. “No Spanish member of the Plus Ultra II brigade remains in Iraq,” Zapatero told Parliament in a debate on his decision to withdraw the 1,300 troops.
I posted this over at Dean’s earlier — I rarely double post across blogs..but had to with this one.
At least the terrorists know that Spain can be rolled.
Mmm…how is that they say it……Adios?!?
Now that Spain has set a precedent for countries kowtowing to terrorism, I wonder who else will follow and if they really believe they are finally safe from terrorists. I shudder over this kind of news.
well don’t let the terrorist hit you on the way out… ¡los cobardes!
I had high hopes that Spain had a spine. Now it seems that the Terrorists have the big stick while Spain is bending over.
I could probably conquer Spain, on my own, with a rubber band gun.
I hope this doesn’t reflect poorly on the army of Spain. I am greatful for their service. Spain’s goverment on the other hand is spineless and should be embarassed of itself. I guess their flag doesn’t have a yellow stripe down the middle for nothing.
Ahem, the people of Spain were against the War For Oil from Day One. They spoke at the election. It’s called democracy. Isn’t that what you are trying to achieve in Iraq?
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Disturbing The War
Actually, that isn’t at all an accurate depiction.
The Conservative Party in Spain had the majority of the parliment- I beleive it was 52% if I recall correctly. That is a majority vote. When the Socialist party took power, they did so without a majority in parliment. From the last election, they still only have 46% of parliment. I think the Conservative party sill has around 42% of the seats in parliment, IIRC.
To say the majority of Spain was against the Iraq war from the start simply isn’t an accurate statement. Their new PM simply was able to use the Madrid incident as a scare tactic in order to gain power and to sway the swing vote. Yes, that is indeed called a Democracy, but what you depict as one IS NOT.
Ted
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2895489.stm
Friday, 28 March, 2003, 13:11 GMT
[...]
Spain’s Centre for Sociological Investigations (CIS) has found that anti-war feeling in the country is running at peak levels.
Its latest survey suggests that 91% of Spaniards are against the military action taking place in Iraq.
Until now, most surveys have put the figure closer to 80%.
The publicly funded CIS works directly to the government of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and regularly tests opinion on social issues.
[...]
I’d call 91% a democratic majority. What would you call it?
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Disturbing The War
hey shrub cutter, you snooty little fart, the only people that stood to gain oil from Iraq were the nations that had their hands in Iraqs coffers… hello ‘oil for food’ or as the UN called it ‘oil for funds’… France, Germany, Russia, and quite a few more, all had SECRET oil contracts, in the millions and billions, with Iraq, with Saddam… the only names that weren’t on that paper was… anyone, anyone…? Bush, Cheney, Halliburton… your such a dolt…
Spain lost a lot of innocent civilians and they got just a taste of what we got on 9/11, but yet, they turned tail and ran… like the cobardes they are… what they fail to realize is that the only way to defeat a terrorist is to KILL it… not run from it, because they will see it as a sign of weakness and attack you anyway… look it up. we are taking the fight to them and it looks like some people just can’t stand the heat, well get out of the kitchen and stay out of our way… oh and Flub Cutter, go back to MOVEON.ORGY and tell them that Bush will win even with their illegal little contributions to the Kerry campaign… because America has enough spine and grit for ourselves and Spain as well… have a good day…
OOPS! I meant to say MOVEON.ORG, but .ORGY seems to fit just as well… hehehe…
I would call that the result skewed poll. Polls are not indicators of a “democratic majority” at all and desired results can be easily manipulated. Words like “suggest” (as used in your quote)equates to specious reasoning at best, and although I am unaware of the who the “CIS” is I would like to see where they got their polling subjects from. Also an indicator of possible inaccuracy is the data given pre-Madrid Bombing that the conservative party was going to win the election. It was the Madrid bombing that changed the result of the election, nothing more.
Look at the numbers in parliment- that is the best indicator on the matter. The decision for Spain to pull the troops was the decision of one person, and while I submit that the many people in Spain agree with the decision I would not put it any anywhere near 90%.
Oh yeah- one last thing. According to a CBS/Gallup pole, 78% of people taking polls lie when they do so. Kinda funny, innit?
Ted
shrubby, only if they interviewed everyone in spain would this truly reflect a democratic poll… but the results is only 90% of those that were polled… not the entire country. and what district did they poll… the socialist one… must have been canada day.
thanks for the Irony ted… 78%… what a riot.
Madbarr and Ted,
Why can’t you guys just accept that the majority spoke both before and during the election? The poll was taken on behalf of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. He, like you guys, ignored the results and he paid the political price.
I’m always amazed by the chickenhawks that sit in their comfy homes and pontificate about war from a safe distance. I’m sure if you were on the ground in Iraq right now you’d be feeling a bit less sure about exporting your “democratic” values elsewhere.
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Disturbing The War.
Yea, the majority spoke during the Spain elections, alright.
The Majority has a name. That name is Al Qaeda.
I have 2 young friends in stationed in Iraq (One is station at the airport as a fire fighter) that worked for me, and my 16 year old son will be enlisting and as a result will be more than likely serve in Iraq. Please- do not take the ignorant stance of how I can safely pontificate about war from a safe distance. You assume too much.
The “political price” was paid simply becasue of an attack upon the railway system in Spain. There is no other reason for this. Look at the parliment split post election- 46% for the Socialist party and 42% for the Conservative party. This happened simply becasue of the swing vote in Spain, which is about 10-20% of the voting populas. This swing was influence by the attack- nothing more and nothing less.
And FTR- sweeping generalities such as “chickenhawk” are often times proven false here. If you wish to make such assumption please feel free, but also be prepared to be proven wrong such as you were about how I can “pontificate” from my living room.
Ted
opps- forgot to mention my 2 cousin in Iraq also…
Ted
Shrubbery, since you are fairly new to this board I will cut you a little slack, but be warned, I do not take lightly those that question my loyalties and my patriotism… I served in the military for ten years and have seen things that would probably make you cry out like a child… I’ve seen a bullet penetrate a man’s skull and spill his brains on to a wall on the other side… because it was my bullet, and it was through my sites that that man’s life was taken… so like Ted said, don’t make arrogant presumptions, when you really don’t know those you speak about.
The vote in Spain was purely out of fear… the bombing was meant to cause this fear and it worked, plain and simple… and no matter how much you poll, nothing would have prepared them for the bombing, because like 9/11 they didn’t expect it and they weren’t prepared… so as a result former PM Aznar lost because his opponent was able to capitalize on the bombing and rally the country around himself… because it happened so close to the elections it was still fresh in the voters minds and their vote was a knee-jerk reaction; out of fear and anger… and I think that if another poll was conducted in about 6 months the majority would probably have voted for Aznar if the bombing hadn’t occurred. It’s sad for Spain really, because now they are not looked upon with much respect from friend or enemy… they have joined France, Germany, and Russia in shame (IMO)…