Although the new Spanish socialist government, reflecting the strong pressure of its supporters, says it will leave Iraq, analysts interviewed in today’s Wall Street Journal are sceptical it will do so.
The US has been working behind the scenes with Germany and other European states to effect a nominal transfer of command of American and other occupation forces to either the UN or NATO by June 30. This is the same template which was used to disguise the US role in the “NATO” intervention in Kosovo and the “UN” intervention in Afghanistan, where the command and main military forces were American. While Journal reporters Greg Jaffe and Greg Hitt speculate that the election has dealt this objective a setback, an accompanying Journal report by Marc Champion and Carlta Vitzthum notes “the Socialist Party has praised the German effort to get the North Atlantic Treaty Organization involved in the occupation.” The socialist victory, it would seem, is likely to have a significantly greater impact on the new EU constitution and perhaps other elections than on developments in Iraq. WSJ articles reproduced on www.supportingfacts.com Sorry for any cross posting.
