Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=3/15/2004

TYPE=ENGLISH PROGRAMS REPORT

TITLE=U-S/Spain/Iraq

NUMBER=4-0079

BYLINE=Rebecca Ward

PHONE=203-4262

DATELINE=Washington

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INTRO: After winning Spain's general elections Sunday, the prime minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero says he plans on pulling out 13-hundred Spanish troops in Iraq.

TEXT: Speaking on Spanish radio, Mr. Zapatero called the war and occupation of Iraq a "disaster." But he stressed that a final decision will be made after he takes power and following wide political consultations.

James Dobbins is the Director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at Rand Corporation, here in the Washington area. He says Mr. Zapatero's promise to withdraw troops from Iraq is a setback for the U-S led coalition.

///DOBBINS ACT ONE///

It's impact is likely to be largely symbolic but that will be serious. I mean Spain's contribution has always been quite modest at a practical level. The importance is having a major partner like Spain engaged in the enterprise and politically supportive of it and that, it appears, will change.

///END ACT///

Mr. Zapatero's Socialist Party defeated the ruling conservative Popular Party in elections held just three days after a series of terrorist bombings in Madrid that killed 200 people. Mr. Dobbins says in the weeks before the train bombings, the Popular Party was ahead in opinion polls. So, it appears the attacks changed the minds of some Spanish voters.

///DOBBINS ACT TWO///

What presumably changed their minds was a conclusion that Spain had become unnecessarily exposed to this terrorism as a result of its support for the attack on Iraq - an attack which the Spanish public by and large had been critical of to start with.

///END ACT///

James Dobbins is the Director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at Rand Corporation.

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