Spain, democratic rights.

In light of the recent events surrounding Spain’s pledge to remove troops from Iraq, there have been any number of misconceptions and wrong ideals put forth in the debate. First of all, there needs to be clarification about Spain’s actual position. The socialist slate had been running a months-long campaign on several issues, including the plan to remove troops if and only if the UN did not take over the military policing of Iraq. They had been saying this and arguing in front of Spanish citizens well before the train bombings. Spain is saying that Bush and the US has botched its job in Iraq, and with at least 3 US deaths a day (I don’t know the numbers for other nationals), Spain feels that the UN would be better suited for the job of peacekeeping. Contrary to rumors, Spain does not want to stifle the progression of Iraq to a democracy, Spain does not want to leave the US alone, and Spain does not want to cease the war on terrorism, they simple want the UN to run things, which would have been the case had Bush followed International Law.

Furthermore, many critics have been putting forth the Idea that Spain is succumbing to the pressures of terrorism, the bombings that killed 201 and injured 1700 people. What no one seems to grasp, however, is that al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden hated Saddam and his regime for the murder of Islamic ‘brothers,’ and never once supported, worked with, or worked for Saddam. Thus, connecting the al-Qaeda bombings and the war in Iraq is illogical. I make no assumption of knowing why terrorists do what they do, but the facts don’t add up. Spain is threatening to remove troops only if the UN does not take over. That’s it, they still found the train bombers, they are still one of the ‘many’ allies of Bush in this war, and they will keep troops there, if the UN runs the show.

Finally, addressing recent statements made by the Republicans in the House and Senate, I find examples of why people around the world may dislike us. Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican, said, “If we follow the example of the new Spanish government and we accept failure in Iraq and permit the victory of the terrorists, there will be no counting the number of people around the world who will suffer the consequences.” “Here is a country that stood against terrorism, and had a huge terrorist act within their country, and they chose to change their government and to in a sense appease terrorists,” House Speaker Dennis Hastert said. An officially run election, in a foreign country results in a majority of the people voting into power a slate they know is against helping the Bush-US, but instead wants to work with the UN, and the Republicans attack them. Wake up people, we don’t live there, we don’t vote there, we absolutely cannot tell them what or what not to do. To top that off, they aren’t ‘accepting failure in Iraq,’ they are looking at the numbers, realizing the US is messing things up, and pushing for a change in military governance. Spain is a democracy, let it work. I can see how people may no like the US, if at the first sign of dissent among our allies we pressure and complain about democracy. We did the same thing with France when a Republican actually proposed a House Bill for the removal of all US soldiers buried in Normandy. Maybe the UN should run things.

Sean Dixon 617-352-9513 CAS ’04