Several European allies of the United States affirmed their determination on Monday to keep forces in Iraq despite last week’s terror bombings in Madrid and Sunday’s surprise election of a Spanish government bent on pulling out its own troops. The declarations were made in response to the victory of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, which unseated a government that was a staunch ally of Washington. Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has pledged to withdraw Spain’s 1,300 troops from Iraq by the end of July if the United Nations does not take over peacekeeping. Spain is set to join France and Germany, once dismissed by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld as "old Europe," in opposing military involvement in Iraq. "Old Europe has been fortified. It is a lesson for the United States. The coalition is not permanent," said Stefano Silvestrini, an analyst for the International Affairs Institute here.
| What were we saying back when the WoT was young about alliances being shifting things? Life's tough, but so are we. Deal with them as far as possible, but keep our eye on the main objective, which doesn't involve flamenco dancing. |
Nonetheless, Spain’s defection does not seem to be causing a rush to the exits. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has been at odds with opposition groups about the military involvement in Iraq, pledged to keep the country’s 2,300 soldiers there. In Britain, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw disputed any suggestion that countries allied with the United States were more likely to be attacked by terrorists than countries without troops in Iraq. "So far as people feeling that they have become a bigger target, obviously we are going to hear a lot of this argument," he told BBC Radio. "All I can say is that no one should get the idea that somehow if you were a country which was opposed to military action in Iraq, you are less of a target for al Qaeda and these terrible Islamic fanatics. Not at all."
| If you pay your dhimmi tax they'll leave you alone, unless they feel like having a little fun... |
Polish officials said they would keep the country’s 2,400 peacekeeping troops in Iraq. "Revising our position on Iraq after terrorist attacks would be to admit that terrorists are stronger and they are right," Prime Minister Leszek Miller said at a news conference in the Polish town of Tarnow, according to news services. Poland currently commands 10,000 multinational troops in south-central Iraq. Spain was due to take over the command in July, but that schedule is now in doubt.
| I think I'd be looking for somebody else... |
"If it is necessary, we will continue leading the multinational division. We are prepared to do that even if Spain is not able to fulfill its promise," Poland’s ambassador to NATO, Jerzy Nowak, said in Brussels. In the Netherlands, the government said that its small contingent would remain. European participation in Iraq is important to Washington both for manpower and because a European presence buttresses the Bush administration’s contention that the occupation is the work of leading free nations. In backing the United States, however, the allies went against the grain of popular opinion at home. Edmund Wnuk-Lipinski, a sociology professor at Poland’s Academy of Sciences, said the election results showed Europe was not prepared to resist terror.
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The outcome in Spain "is kind of encouragement for those who did the bombing, because it proved to be a very serious and effective way to influence governments — and politics even — in Western European democracies," he said. "If it was a test, then we can expect similar things before any popular election in any European country." |