WELL DONE:

The United States will not allow Spain to sell military aircraft with American technology to Venezuela, saying the sale would aid the increasingly "antidemocratic" government of President Hugo Chávez and would destabilize the region, the American Embassy announced Friday.

The Spanish government, led by Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, said it regretted the decision, but vowed to move forward with the deal after acquiring the necessary technology elsewhere.

Orrin Judd rhetorically asks: "Why don't we sell ETA some Stingers?" And it's even worse, because Stingers do not contain Spanish technology.

Oh, and get the nerve of this unnamed Spanish diplomatic official, quoted in the NYT's piece linked above:

It is unclear whether the American decision to oppose the Venezuelan deal will spoil the good will that both nations say has been building between them.

One Spanish diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the news media, said Spain was committed to avoiding further recriminations. "We are adopting a very conciliatory and friendly position on this," he said. "If the Americans want to provoke us, that's fine. But we are not going to get into that."

[BTW, after some unplanned hiatus during the last few days, I'm back in the blogging game, and now it's for good. I hope.]

Click here to send me an email