Re: [UC] Repercussions of Spain

[Benseraglio2]

Not that this has anything much to do with UC yuppie concerns, BUT:   The Popular Party (called center-right in US media) sent 1300 troops to Iraq, in alliance with Bush, against the strong wishes of the Spanish people, as measured in opinion polls last year. The Popular Party was leading the Socialist Workers Party in the runup to the election. The military operation by Al Qaida in Madrid last week changed that. Basically what the Spanish people said in their election yesterday was that they want their troops brought back home, and that is in fact what Socialist Workers Party will do -- bring them back home when their stint is up in July.   Socialist Workers were already quite strong before the election -- they went from 125 seats to 164 in the 350-seat legislature. Popular Party had 183 and they dropped down to 148. It takes 176 to make a majority so the Socialists will have to form a coalition, but they won't have to give much -- they only need 12 more votes.   What seems to be overlooked here is that this represents the first parliamentary defeat for a member of Bush's "coalition of the willing" -- the first time coalition troops are going to be pulled out. To say that this was because the Spanish people were "terrorized" is nonsense -- there was already very strong sentiment against the war; Al Qaida's massive spring offensive simply put the icing on the cake.   Ross Bender http://rossbender.org   In a message dated 3/15/2004 11:37:26 AM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Today's news analysis is quite disturbing. Virtually all pundits (TV and daily newspapers) are talking about one thing following the results of the Spanish Elections. ... Terrorists successfully influenced the outcome of the Spanish Elections! It doesn't matter who the Terrorists were (and all the pundits call them only generic "terrorists"), the fact is, based on "exit polls," Spanish voters CHANGED their votes because of the terrorist bombing 4 days before the election. That my friends is a VERY scary fact.