Spain Can Do What It Wants

In an editorial on Thursday, this paper said that Spain should keep its troops in Iraq. I fail to see why. The population there overwhelmingly opposes the war in Iraq (over 80%). They were never a target for Al Qaeda In an editorial on Thursday, this paper said that Spain should keep its troops in Iraq. I fail to see why. The population there overwhelmingly opposes the war in Iraq (over 80%). They were never a target for Al Qaeda before they started helping us in this war that never really needed to be fought in the first place. Some small-minded, jingoistic fools might say “if it weren’t for the US the Spanish might be speaking German now”. That is patently ridiculous. We haven’t been much good for Spain. We fought petty colonial wars with them and we supported a fascist dictator in their country who threw many leaders of the recently elected Socialist Party in jail. We have always treated Spain as a mean to our ends. Maybe, having seen its worst terrorist attack (in a country that has small scale attacks all the time, courtesy of ETA), made the Spanish people think twice about their conservative leader and his one minded support for American interests. Spain is a sovereign nation, and if its people don’t want to be in a war, they shouldn’t have to be. James Downing CAS ’06 207 441 6708