Zapatero: Spain to Keep 'Cordial' Ties with U.S.

[leftchick]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=4568324§ion=news

<snip>MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's incoming Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Monday his government would maintain "cordial" relations with the United States, despite having criticized George W. Bush for the war on Iraq.

"My government will maintain cordial relations with all the governments of the world, and of course with the United States," Zapatero told reporters, one day after ousting Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's Popular Party from government in a huge election upset.

At his news conference, and in a previous radio interview, Zapatero reiterated his campaign pledge to pull Madrid's 1,300 troops out of Iraq unless the United Nations takes charge of Iraq by mid-year.

"I don't want to talk about (withdrawal) dates now," he said at the news conference, adding he wanted to leave this until after the inauguration ceremony

[ewagner]

1. He can prepare

to be snubbed. Treated rudely. Ignored by the U.S. ...unless they try to buy him off first.....

Shrubco doesn't take kindly to criticism.

[Capt_Nemo]

7. By all means, bring it on!

That will boost Zapatero's popularity through the Stratosphere!

on edit: plus the PSOE will have now access to the files of the
ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs and the prime-minister's
office. If the bushies whine too much who knows what could come out...
it would be even better if the PP would be caught red-handed now
shredding embarrassing evidence!

[underpants]

2. Interesting how they hold leaders accountable for bad decisions

and complete failures of national security.

[Liberal Veteran]

4. That's a totally novel idea.

And here I thought that the US was supposed to have the market cornered on ingenuity.

Wonder what kind of food we'll be renaming now in retaliation?

[Capt_Nemo]

8. Amazing, indeed!

[Drifter]

3. Prepare for the ...

France-ing of Spain.

Cheers
Drifter

[Shadder]

5. I can see it now....

Freedom Rice.

[jmcgowanjm]

6. Media are treating this like Cancer/The PeopleRule for a Day

And if you look around the world, those who are happily
joining the coalition are doing it for reasons that should
send shivers up their spine. There's a lot of applause for
the coalition, but it will disappear very quickly if you look
at the reasons why countries are joining. If that's the
new internationalism, we should not want to be part
of it, we should be strongly opposed to it.

http://www.counterpunch.org/chomskychat.html

Operaton Gladio or Stay Behind

Throughout Western Europe, particularly in Italy, leftist
politics had a stronger following than it has seen in the US
since the 1930s, and the Stay Behinds were the CIA's
primary footsoldiers in its "dirty tricks" campaign against
this percieved enemy. In a psy-war effort to alienate the
public from the political left, they launched bogus left-wing
terror outfits (the "Baader-Meinhof Gang") or framed real
leftist undergrounds (the "Red Brigades") for atrocities
they committed themselves. In Italy, where the Stay Behind operation was code-named "Gladio," agents posing as
left-wing extremists perpetrated many public bombings
during the '70s, killing at least 300 people. These
culminated in the August 1980 Bologna Train Station
Bombing, which killed 86. The 1978 kidnapping and
murder of Aldo Moro was another Gladio exploit. These
activities had one purpose: to portray the political left as
public enemy number one, thus isolating it domestically
while building consent for military escalation and NATO aggression against the Soviets

http://nyc.indymedia.org/