Ted, looks like Zapatero agrees with you:
Spain's Leader: Iraq Occupation a 'Fiasco'
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By ANDREW SELSKY, Associated Press Writer
MADRID, Spain - Spain's new leader intensified his criticism of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq (news - web sites) on Wednesday, saying it was "turning into a fiasco."
Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero also refused to reconsider his pledge to pull his 1,300 troops out of Iraq by June 30, in a sharp break with the Bush administration.
Zapatero had signaled his dislike of President Bush (news - web sites)'s policies during the Spanish election campaign when he said he hoped Democratic challenger John Kerry (news - web sites) would win in November.
The International Herald Tribune recently quoted Zapatero as saying, "We're aligning ourselves with Kerry. Our allegiance will be for peace, against war, no more deaths for oil, and for a dialogue between the government of Spain and the new Kerry administration."
In the hourlong interview Wednesday on Onda Cero radio, Zapatero said that "fighting terrorism with bombs ... with Tomahawk missiles, isn't the way to defeat terrorism. ...
"Terrorism is combatted by the state of law. ... That's what I think Europe and the international community have to debate," he said.
Zapatero said the Iraq occupation "is turning into a fiasco," noting that "there have been almost more deaths since the end of the war" than during last year's U.S.-led invasion, and the United Nations (news - web sites) still is not in control.
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