Thursday, September 09, 2004


(shamelessly stolen from Allah)

Guys, this gets worse and worse:
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero called on the world community Thursday to take urgent steps to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Iraq crisis.

After strongly condemning the wave of hostage-taking in Iraq, he said: "These events are part of a picture in which the world community and the United Nations must reflect on and agree on urgent political steps with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the situation in Iraq."

[...] Zapatero underscored the need to "return (full) sovereignty to the Iraqi people as soon as possible, noting that "the US-led military intervention has proved totally negative."

[...] "The future of world security must involve a multilateral vision," the Spanish leader added, referring to "international legality, dialogue between cultures and religions, the fight against poverty and to development."
Gosh, this guys builds his doctrine from fortune cookies, or what he reads on graffiti, or on banners at demonstrations.

But wait, there's more. This article is from the English version of EFE, the state-run news agency. But apparently the newsguys didn't want to embarrass too much his boss for the whole world to see, because they didn't translate the real whopper, which was the headline and main point in the Spanish version (English translation follows):
El presidente del Gobierno español, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, se ha mostrado favorable a que países que tienen en la actualidad tropas en Irak sigan la decisión de España de retirar sus efectivos militares de este país porque se abriría "una expectativa más favorable".

[...] El jefe del Ejecutivo español, sobre la valoración que hace de la retirada de las tropas casi cinco meses después de adoptar esa decisión, dijo que sólo puede subrayar que cree que fue "muy acertada".

"Sobre todo porque era una decisión querida por la inmensa mayoría del pueblo español", añadió Zapatero, quien señaló que ve con "profunda preocupación" la actual situación en Irak.

"Con respeto a todos los países que están allí (con tropas), si hubiera más decisiones en la línea del Gobierno español (retirada de efectivos), se abriría una expectativa más favorable", aseguró.
Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has pleaded the countries who currently have deployed troops in Iraq to follow Spain's decision of withdrawing their military forces from that country in order to open "more favorable prospects".

[...] The chief of the Spanish executive branch, speaking about the assessment of the pulloff almost five months after the move, said that he only can insist that he thinks it was "a very good decision."

"Particularly because it was a decision which was demanded by an immense majority of the Spanish people," added Zapatero, who pointed out that he is watching "with deep concern" the current situation in Iraq.

"Regarding all countries which have troops there, if there were more decisions like the Spanish government's (withdrawal of troops), more favorable prospects would be open"
(my translation)

Sheesh.