Yesterday's papers considered Tuesday's announcement by the Spanish prime minister, José Luis RodrÃÂguez Zapatero, that Spain will withdraw the rest of its troops from Iraq by May 27.
La Vanguardia welcomed the decision as a sign of a "change of direction" towards a foreign policy based on "multilateralism, the defence of international law, and respect for the United Nations".
| All of which has worked so well. |
But the paper noted that the government's decision was not put to the vote. "Spanish troops returned from Iraq the same way they went there, with parliament debating a done deal," it said.
Much of that debate was a repeat of prewar arguments, said ABC, which accused the government of recycling "the same polemic of the past 14 months" to avoid explaining its decision not to wait for a new UN resolution - which would have enabled Spanish troops to remain in Iraq without breaking Mr Zapatero's pre-election promises. Mr Zapatero "should have explained the reasons for his decision [to pull troops out of Iraq], above all when other countries are trying to create a new UN consensus to support the transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqis", it said.
| He explained it without saying a word. |
ABC was one of several papers to question why the prime minister had not pushed harder for a new UN resolution - especially when Spain is a member of the security council. La Razón suspected that Mr Zapatero pushed ahead with the troop pullout because "he is not prepared to face the European elections [in June] under the threat of more casualties".
| He wants to face the June elections with Socialist parties on the attack. |
"Our troops are in serious danger," agreed El Mundo, but it concluded that "sending those troops was never justified, and there is no sense in prolonging their stay until" the handover of power to the Iraqi caretaker government on June 30.
El PaÃÂs called on Mr Zapatero to go beyond "good intentions" and outline his vision for postwar Iraq: "The government still has to define what strategy it supports ... Iraq is a problem that effects all. It is essential to rebuild the international consensus." But the paper agreed that the decision to withdraw troops was correct because, in the words of Mr Zapatero: "We should not have gone into Iraq, so we had to pull out as soon as possible."
| Pull out as soon as possible, but at the same time develop a strategy. Guess the strategy won't include Spanish troops, will it? |
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