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more on Aznar Rules Out Spanish Troops in Iraq
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2003 08:02:22 -0500
------ Forwarded Message From: Jose M Guardia <joseg () guardiasociados com> Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2003 12:58:12 +0100 To: dave () farber net Subject: Re: [IP] Aznar Rules Out Spanish Troops in Iraq I think 'wrp' is being a little disingenuous here. If I understand correctly, he's criticizing Aznar for defying "overwhelming public opposition to war in Iraq within his own nation" when supporting Bush, but then he complains precisely because he doesn't defy that overwhelming opposition further by sending troops into direct combat. What the AP note doesn't explain is that Aznar explicitly said in his address to Parliament yesterday that the main reason he wasn't sending troops into combat was, precisely, that polls seem to show that 8 out of 10 Spaniards declare to be opposed to war in Iraq. Interestingly, and very rarely reported, is that the same polls show that 2/3 of Spaniards believe that Saddam does have WMD and that he's a threat to the whole world. In my view, the decision stems from Aznar's need to do some juggling with what he believes and what public opinion believes. There is a very strong opposition to war by public opinion, as in the UK, but unlike Blair he's only supported in Parliament by his own party which holds the majority of seats. Meanwhile Blair, even if 140 members of his own Labour party voted against him yesterday, he still won solidly 412 to 149 because virtually all the Conservatives in the minority voted for his position. On further consideration is that many members and a remarkable chunk of constituencies of Aznar's party, the right-of-center Popular Party, are Catholic. Considering the Vatican's position on this crisis, the assumption is that they can come to accept Spain's political support and troops on humanitarian tasks, but quite a few of them could blatantly oppose to participating in the military campaign. JMG ------ End of Forwarded Message ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- more on Aznar Rules Out Spanish Troops in Iraq Dave Farber (Mar 19)