Did today signal the death of NATO and isolation for the USA?

[_Jumper_]

Will the US become isolated militarily and diplomatically, since the result of the Spanish election suggests that if a country backs an American war and it is attacked by Al-Qaeda the government will be toppled? Will any government risk its survival again by defying the will of its people and backing an American war? Will NATO become meaningless?

[Must_B_Free]

1. Depends if the Usurper can feign a win

It's not the US that everyone is pissed with. It is the Neocons. Just ecause the Neocons have driven this nation into the ditch, it does not tarnish us permanantly as long as we can get rid of them.

Everyone knows we got hijacked.

[_Jumper_]

3. True

But will the US get any support for any war next time, even if we have a sane president, given the high cost of support?

[sweetheart]

11. that presumes

that if democrats get elected, that they stand down in the war of
empire to conquor the world through overt or covert means.

The USA's methods of interventionist neoliberalism and superpower-self-aggrandizement has lead to dangerous imperialism... under
both democratic and republican governments.

This militarism is our undoing. I don't see the democrats standign
down on this. Well, then the USA will stay hated, just less so.

The president who reigns in the military to the USA's borders and
comes back to sanity in this new arms race will gain some respect
only depending on his move with empire.

[mikehiggins]

2. NATO will not become meaningless but European politicians

will think twice about supporting a policy that the vast majority of their citizens CLEARLY oppose.

Will this lead to further isolationism and possibly into the continuous war of Orwell's imaginings? Could very well happen, except that business will lose money that way so I can't really see it being allowed to happen.

We may see a resumption of the old "Yankee Go Home" campaigns again, especially in Europe but also in Latin and South America and Africa.

And who do we have to blame for this but the cowboys in D.C.?

[_Jumper_]

4. "Yankee Go Home"

I am not familiar with those campaigns. Can you enlighten me on that front?

[mikehiggins]

6. Back in the 50's, and all over the world, there were demonstrations

calling for us Yankees to go home. South and Central America were notorious for them (something about a century of interference in their nations or something like that). Vice President Nixon even got his convoy tomatoed I beleive.

I'd have to look it up to get critical cites but generally all of them were dismissed as Communist inspired and part of the world-wide Red Menace. The idea that there might be other reasons for those cute little brown and black and yellow people not to like us really wasn't considered until Viet Nam.

People in other countries seem to have a much clearer idea of what American capitalism has meant to their own countries than people in our country do. Amazing.

Edited to add this: if you go to Ask Jeeves and type in Yankee Go Home you'll get a wide range of commentary on this idea (first put forth, apparently, by Mark Twain regarding the Spanish-American War). And they threw eggs at Nixon, not tomatoes. Happened in Equador.

[_Jumper_]

7. Thanks

:yourock:

[WaywardSon]

5. Get ready for more attacks...

They have found out that a terrorist strike can/may affect an election. This isn't just about * anymore. It won't matter who is in office now. Once you give into terror, they have you.

[ljm2002]

8. So, let me get this straight...

Any country that suffers a terrorist attack, must in the next election vote for the incumbents -- the ones who, by definition, failed to protect them. Otherwise, they are giving in to the terrorists. That about sum it up?

Puhleeze.

[Rex]

9. Good point

That's why I see through everything that comes out of the Bush Administration - I refuse to submit to BFEE terror!

[DrWeird]

10. That's one hundred percent correct.

Too bad Ronald Reagon negotiated with terrorists.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. What they may have found

is that a government sticking to its own version of reality, rather than admitting the known facts, is liable to get booted out.

So maybe the effect will be more honest governments. But I won't hold my breath for that.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. Spanish Socialist: "Blair is a complete dickhead"

Watch that Spanish-British relationship fly!

Tony Blair has been called "a complete dickhead" by a leading Spanish politician live on television. The comment was made by Jose Bono, one of the three most powerful figures in the Socialist Party. His remarks were not intended to be heard, but were recorded by a television team while he was talking to Joaquin Almunia, a former Socialist leader.

Mr Bono said: "Hey, and our colleague Blair? He's a complete dickhead (un gilipollas integral). He's an imbecile."

The comments contrast with the Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar's carefully cultivated friendship with Mr Blair and will embarrass the Socialists.

The party is irritated by Mr Blair's friendship with Mr Aznar and dislikes the resulting Anglo-Spanish alliance.

There is little question that were Spain's conservatives to lose power, the London-Madrid axis would collapse.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/01/16/wspain16.xml