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Spanish media question “high price” being paid in Iraq
Khaleej Times, (AFP)
30 November 2003
MADRID - The Spanish media on Sunday questioned if the “high price” being paid by the country’s troop contingent in Iraq was worth paying, a day after seven Spanish intelligence agents were killed in a grenade and mortar attack south of Baghdad.
Stunned by the latest attack, which brought the Spanish death toll in Iraq to 10, the press pondered if Madrid would stay the course with most Spaniards bitterly opposed to the whole enterprise.
“What are we doing over there in the face of opposition from the majority of the Spanish population and all political parties save for the (ruling) Popular Party?” asked Catalan daily El Periodico.
El Pais, Spain’s most widely read daily, provided a blunt editorial entitled: “Spain is paying a high price” for the decision of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar to commit a 1,300-strong force to Iraq.
“This highest of prices (being paid) comes precisely in a deployment enjoying the least support of the population at large,” said El Pais, noting a recent opinion poll pre-dating Saturday’s attack showed public opposition to Spain’s presence in Iraq running at 85 percent.
“If Washington or London can turn their soldiers into an inevitable price to pay for this political and economic plan (for Iraq) this is not the case for Spain, which should never have let itself be dragged into Iraq.”
Referring to a suicide bomb earlier this month on Italian forces in Nasiriyah, El Pais added: “The brutal attack on the headquarters of the Italian Carabinieri made clear that in this Arabic country anything can happen at any moment.
“Resentment against the invaders... is growing exponentially.”
El Mundo called for “explanations and reflection,” while questioning “the very nature of our agents’ mission.”
Leftist parties have questioned what the victims from Spanish intelligence were doing in Iraq, with Aznar having all along stressed the “humanitarian” nature of the Spanish troops’ presence. Barcelona-based La Vanguardia said “it needs to be established if the attack was random or planned.”
Pro-government daily ABC, however, took a different line, saying that, “for Spain, cooperation with its allies in eradicating international terrorism is inevitable.”
ABC said the attack was down to “organised terrorists opposed to a process of transition towards a regime of liberty.”
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