17 March 2004
State's Armitage Says Spanish Election Not Victory for Terrorism
Says Socialist victory a reaction against government mishandling
By Stephen Kaufman
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage attributed the victory of Spain's Socialist Workers' Party in the March 15 elections to a popular reaction against the former government's handling of the March 11 terrorist attack in Madrid.
He said the election outcome should not be seen as a victory for terrorism.
Armitage, interviewed March 16 by three American news radio stations at the Department of Defense's "Pentagon Radio Day," said the Spanish people demonstrated a "solid wall against terrorists" in public demonstrations after the bombing.
"What I saw in the wake of that horrid bombing in Madrid were millions of Spaniards standing out protesting against terrorism," he told Jacksonville, North Carolina-based WTKF-AM.
"They were not raising their arms for peace. They were raising their arms against terrorism," said Armitage to Philadelphia's WPHT-AM.
He said he believed the vote against former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar was a reaction of the voters against what they saw as the mishandling of the terrorist attack, as well as a belief that his government was withholding information on the incident.
Armitage acknowledged that the Spanish public had "a certain amount of anxiety" toward the war in Iraq and said their new government had publicly stated an intention to pull Spanish troops out of Iraq in June "unless the U.N. does not take over in some unspecified way."
"We'll see how that plays out," Armitage told Ellen Ratner of Talk News Radio Service.
However, he noted to WTKF that the 24,500 coalition soldiers serving alongside U.S. forces in Iraq "are a pretty good sign that other nations do have resolve."
Armitage said President Bush has made a commitment to stay the course in that country until the goal of a free, peaceful Iraq is achieved.
"[T]he only exit strategy is a success in Iraq," he said on WPHT radio.
The deputy secretary was asked about any intelligence being obtained from deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who remains in U.S. custody.
"I occasionally see the debriefs and he's a pretty wily guy, and he's not giving much information that I've seen, but he seems to be enjoying the debate," he said.
Commenting on the March 15 visit of Iraqi civil society representatives to the State Department, Armitage told WPHT, "These are the folks who are going to win the war in Iraq because it is their war to win. We're there to assist them. But ultimately, it's going to take Iraqis to do it."
The coalition strategy, he told WTKF, is to try to better explain to the Iraqi people what the future has in store for them.
"People seem to have a lot of patience if they understand clearly what the future looks like," he said. "Where people get impatient is when they can't make decisions about how tomorrow is going to be or next month is going to be."
As an example of Iraqi resolve, Armitage pointed to the continued rise in the number of police recruits, despite ongoing attacks against Iraqi police forces.
Terrorists fear police on the streets, bringing security and order to their cities, he said. "So that's why they're attacking the police in great numbers."
Armitage told WTKF that the global war against terrorism is not only aimed at countering the threat of wanton violence but is also "a battle of ideas."
"Their idea is that Western secular government should not exist. Ours, of course, is that Western-style governments are a must to provide human rights and human freedoms," he said.
He said that after the May 2003 bombings in Saudi Arabia, the authorities there have made a dramatic shift toward better cooperation against terrorism.
"They realize that these terrorists are not just [seeking] to kill Westerners; they want to kill Muslims, as well, because they want to kill ideas," said Armitage.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2004&m=March&x=20040317161957ESnamfuaK0.5116999&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html
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